I hope the grammar, syntax and dialogue was better in this release. I had friend studying an english major help out. Please tell me if you felt a huge jump compared to my other releases.


Chapter One "Battle of Ginza Part I"

The citizens of Japan and tourists went about their daily lives, just as they had always done, in the bustling Ginza district of Tokyo. Their never-changing routines were disrupted for the first time when a dull shimmering of light appeared in the middle of the busy intersection. The light gradually became more apparent as it began to take shape, morphing into what looked like a large gate of Roman architecture, manifesting amidst the pedestrians and vehicles.

Curious onlookers started to gather, pointing and murmuring amongst themselves.

"What's that?" one person asked.

"Doesn't that look like Roman architecture?" another chimed in.

"Why is something like this appearing in the middle of a busy intersection?"

The Japanese citizens and tourists conversed, their eyes fixed on the large stone doors that had suddenly materialized out of nowhere.

Some tech-savvy individuals in the crowd speculated that it might be an incredibly realistic hologram. "Hey, this looks like a very advanced holographic projection," one person remarked. "A hologram? What makes you think that?" another questioned. "Well, look at how it appeared out of thin air. Objects like a gate don't just materialize out of nowhere," the first person explained.

Several brave souls started to approach the gate, some convinced it was a hologram, while others believed it might be a tangible structure. As they drew closer, the crowd was astonished to see the gate slowly creak open, quickly disproving certain theories that members of the crowd had suggested.

Excitement rippled through the gathered spectators as they caught glimpses of what lay beyond the mysterious gate. "Mecha! I see mecha!" a fan of a certain manga/anime genre screamed in glee, and more of his fellow enthusiasts joined in the cheering. "Did I see that wrong?" one person asked incredulously. "No, you didn't! There are flying mages!" another exclaimed.

The crowd's cheers grew louder, and heated debates broke out among the onlookers. Some argued that sci-fi and mecha were superior to fantasy, while others vehemently defended the merits of magical realms. Tensions escalated, and a few individuals even got into a scuffle that quickly devolved into a violent brawl.

Little did the ignorant crowd know that what they were witnessing was not an elaborate performance by actors wearing incredibly realistic costumes or wielding true-to-life props, nor was it a sophisticated holographic display. Their guesses were far from the shocking truth: the "actors" were, in fact, invaders from another world, poised to conquer and pillage the unsuspecting city.

As the gate fully opened and the otherworldly figures began to pour through, the once-excited crowd fell silent, their expressions morphing from awe and wonder to pure terror. The realization that this was no mere spectacle, but a genuine invasion, hit them like a thunderbolt. Panic set in as people scrambled to flee the scene, their screams piercing the air. The bustling streets of Ginza descended into chaos as the citizens of Tokyo found themselves face-to-face with an unprecedented threat from beyond their world.

- O -

Centurion Felicia Iunianus was one very excited woman. She was honoured to have the opportunity to be leading the vanguard of her legion into another world to claim slaves and treasure for the Saderan Empire!

For just a moment, Felica nearly uttered a prayer to Tanya until she realized in horror at the horrible thing she had been about to do. Once upon a time, she had been ardent believer, but no longer! She greatly despised the false Goddess Tanya and the Tanyan Republic that worshipped the goddess. Yes, that was her official story, and she reminded herself to break out of habit of even appreciating the teachings of her former religion. A slip of her tongue or wrong behavior would not only lead to her being stripped of her position, but she would lose everything had been condemned to slavery.

The only thing she liked about the false goddess and the republic was how Felica like many girls and women would haven't been able to do the many things that had once been restricted only to men up until a few decades ago if Tanya hadn't appeared on Falmart to spread the false goddess' teachings.

Snapping out of her thought, Felica looked to her soldiers. "Prepare yourself! We are about to act as the tips of the spear. Never fear whatever maybe before us. We may die, but they cannot overcome the mighty of the Saderan Empire!"

"For the Saderan Empire!" Her soldiers roared back.

"Forward!" She roared as draw her gladius and as officer in charge of the vanguard she was first to push aside the stone doors leading into another world.

What she saw as the door opened stunned her. The towering buildings made of metal and glass were everything and they climbed towards the sky. The amount of metal she saw surpassed anything she had ever seen that the entire Saderan military could be equipped with the finest metal and still have much to spare. The glass was so clear and large that it spoke to wealth that the new lands she was to conquer.

She snapped out of shocking level of wealth displayed and was about to start commanding her forces when she heard a language that Felica had once treated as sacred. Felica turned to scrutinize the speakers. What she found made her recall the sacred text Felica once believed in.

Felica looked at the speakers of a language she had once treated as sacred with mixed feelings. If her former self was here she would be furious about what she was about to do. But, Felica Iunianus was not that Tanya worshipper she had been in her youth.

"Kill! This is the cursed land that the false goddess Tanya once walked upon!"

- O -

I sat down and closed my eyes as I opened my mind, connecting to the vast network spanning the continent of Falmart. Information far beyond what most mortals could process before fainting or going insane flowed from the network into me. I became aware of the latest intelligence reports regarding events happening around Falmart or anything of importance that the Republic believed their patron goddess should know.

"Patron goddess," I snorted.

Nearly a century had passed since I found myself in a completely different world, one that was not a parallel version of Earth. Many things had happened, and now I found myself transformed into the very thing I had despaired becoming, similar to BEING X. As the years passed and I witnessed my ability to influence reality climb exponentially, it became increasingly difficult to deny the existence of gods when I had become one myself.

"I can't fall into the same mental state as BEING X and the other deities in Falmart," I muttered, repeating it like a mantra several times to avoid making the common mistakes that deities seemed to share.

As I recited the mantra, I continued sorting through the immense amounts of information. I spent nearly an hour before a voice interrupted my meditation.

"Centurion Tanius!" shouted the familiar voice of my second-in-command. "The vanguard has failed to report back. Praefectus Levas orders us to enter the Gate and investigate their status."

"Artius," I addressed my Optio, the second most senior legionary in a centuria, "ready the troops. We leave in ten minutes."

"Of course, Centurion." Artius saluted and left my tent.

I sighed, rising and stretching my stiff muscles from the hour-long meditation. Opening a nearby chest, I began equipping my gear. Each piece served as a physical reminder of how much the Saderan Empire had changed due to my actions.

At first glance, my equipment resembled what Roman legionaries would have used during the Pax Romana era—the stereotypical image most people had of them. However, this was far from the truth. A metallurgist might notice that the iron, once the dominant metal for armor, had been phased out in favor of steel, which had become widespread thanks to my influence.

As I put on the last of my gear, another more obvious example of the Saderan Empire adapting to my influence appeared. In a world similar to the early Roman Empire era civilization, a very alien chest rig was strapped to my chest, something that had appeared on the Earths of my first two lives during the mid-20th century.

I giggled, recalling how the Falmart deities had tried to claim they invented the chest rig. Unlike the more subtle ideas or objects brought about by my influence, chest rigs had become forever immortalized and associated with the aerial mages I had introduced to Falmart. By the time the Saderan Empire had their own version, it was too late to claim that chest rigs were not my invention, as every slave and commoner knew that any claims of the Falmart gods having created them fell on deaf ears.

My giggling continued as I put on the last of my gear and walked up to my gathered troops waiting at the Gate.

"Centurion Tanius, may I ask what's so funny?" Artius inquired as I approached his position.

"Nothing," I shook my head. "Is everyone present and accounted for?"

"The centuria is ready for deployment."

"Good." I nodded, turning to the gathered troops standing in formation. "Remember your training, and everyone will come back in one piece."

"Yes, Centurion Tanius!" my troops chorused.

"Let's move out, then!" I shouted.

My most skilled and experienced scouts were the first to enter the Gate, followed by the rest of the troops. I was the last to enter. The first thing I noticed wasn't the interior of the Gate itself, but how disconnected I felt from the divine network I had been connected to for decades. It wasn't as simple as someone losing their phone connection. My condition was much more severe, like losing an arm and a leg.

You might say it was an exaggeration, but it wasn't, not when I wasn't human despite my appearance. With the right training, it was possible to push the human body and mind to superhuman levels, but I was more than that. I could be described as a transhuman.

A shudder ran down my spine. I didn't want to think about it, but I might describe myself as Tanya. In reality, there were 29 others who self-identified as Tanya out there, best described as clones, or Avatars as Falmart called us, possessing the same memories as the original and true Tanya—the one often known as Goddess Tanya.

"Forget about it," I muttered, banishing the moral dilemma of whether I was really Tanya.

I looked up and around the interior of the Gate. Complete darkness greeted me, but I continued without fear, as the records regarding the Gate had been very clear. As long as I didn't damage the invisible fabric of space-time making up the Gate, there was no danger to worry about.

My feet stepped forward after my troops, and my connection to my greater self and fellow clones continued to weaken. By the time I reached the end of the Gate, the transhuman perks I had enjoyed had all but disappeared. For the first time since coming to Falmart, I felt the closest I had been to becoming mortal again.

The notion that I was the closest thing to a mortal again was quickly pushed to the back of my mind when an unbelievable sight greeted me as I exited the Gate. It was an all too familiar sight I hadn't seen for close to a century—high-rising buildings of steel, concrete, and glass, and many other features of a 21st-century Earth city.

I felt my heart pound. If it was just a modern city, I wouldn't be excited. But it had been more than a century since my second death, and I recognized Japanese, or Akitsushimanese as it was known in my second life.

"Tanius, what are your orders?" Artius inquired without the usual military discipline, speaking in a more pious tone.

Most of my troops also looked at me with respect, not in the manner a soldier showed their superior officer, but as people looking for guidance from a religious figure. To them, I was seen as a living extension of Goddess Tanya on the mortal plane.

I tapped my forehead and tilted my head. Most of my troops nodded and got to work immediately, leaping at thirty-two comrades who didn't share their secret allegiance. About two-thirds, some twenty, were knocked out courtesy of a blow to the temple or chin. The other third, whether through instinct or luck, started fighting back.

"Why are you attacking us?!"

"You must be traitors!"

"They're spies who have infiltrated our ranks!"

"Fight back! We must cleanse the taint of being associated with traitors and spies."

"Prepare to make sacrifices! The true gods will reward us handsomely beyond our wildest dreams if we capture a high-ranking Republican spy!"

The non-believers of the Tanyan faith or non-Republicans fought back valiantly, but in the end, it was futile. They were only human. Every member of my troops who believed in my faith or swore loyalty to the secular Republic were aerial mages, allowing them to use magic to enhance their physical abilities to superhuman levels and cast spells that only another mage could truly contend with.

"Tanius, what are your new orders?" Artius asked as the last of my former troops were subdued. "Just give the word, and we'll kill the decoys."

For a moment, I shuddered at how the subdued legionaries were callously called decoys. Up until a moment ago, those "decoys" had been friends and comrades who had served alongside them, on and off the battlefield, for years. To ruthlessly cast them aside as they no longer acted as unwitting allies for our deep cover as Saderan legionaries.

It wasn't the act of treachery that troubled me too much. I found it distasteful to waste human resources that could have been better used than cast aside, but I knew that sometimes there were no other options on the table. What invoked a tinge of fear was Artius's devoted look that entered the area of religious fanaticism, reminding me too much of how I had been mentally influenced by the Elenium Type 95 Computation Orb to piously worship BEING X.

"No, leave them alive. We used them, and it isn't right to kill them." I shook my head. Artius was about to protest when I glared at him. "I am ordering you to leave them."

"Of course, Tanius."

I looked at the corpses of Japanese citizens and foreigners littering the streets. "Your mission is Search and Destroy. Find any Saderan legionaries and auxiliaries. Eliminate them with extreme prejudice. If you encounter any native inhabitants on this side of the Gate, assist them however you can, but remember, this is the secondary objective. By killing the Saderans, we are preventing further civilian casualties."

"Of course, Tanius!" My troops saluted and discarded their Saderan equipment. New equipment associated with my faith or the Republic emerged from hidden Bags of Holding. They quickly formed into Flights—groups of four aerial mages—and lifted off.

"I can't just stand here," I muttered, and my appearance changed as I transformed. Equipment I had used in my second life appeared, and I rose into the sky. I grinned and roared, "It's time to go hunting!"

- O -

Itami Yoji hummed happily as he looked down at his smartphone. It seemed good luck had struck him as a large manga/anime convention had been scheduled to take place during the weekday, and he had received approval from his unit commander for his week off from work. All he needed to do was check his phone's map app and find where exactly the convention was taking place.

He heard some loud noises.

At first, Itami ignored the noisy sounds. It wasn't the first time he had heard a couple of voices screaming, completely unrelated to an actual emergency. He had seen several protests regarding one matter or another that required people to scream their voices.

What got Itami to look up was when the screams were no longer limited to a few people, but hundreds started joining in. He was about to lift his head in annoyance to find out what was causing the disturbance when he noticed several things: fantasy creatures, flying people, and mechs.

The first thing he thought was, "Awesome, someone managed to create a mech for cosplaying," but he quickly realized that it was impossible. He might not have the highest security clearance like those in high-ranked military officer or government officials, but it was high enough to know mechs were still within the realm of fiction, even for the most advanced technology companies or the bleeding-edge United States military.

Yet his eyes couldn't believe that he was seeing what looked like actual working mechs as he saw several of them wielding huge melee weapons that cleaved and crushed people with ease.

If Itami's training and experience as a member of the Japanese military's special forces had allowed him to discern that he was looking at real mechs in action, then his Otaku expertise picked out that the fantasy creatures were also likely real. No cosplayer with an unlimited budget and time could create a costume replicating creatures such as humanoid monsters like three-meter-tall ogres or non-humanoid griffins and wyverns.

The flying people he noticed were not a magic trick because he had really good eyesight, the kind where he could fire a rifle with iron sights to a distance of half a kilometer with decent accuracy. There were no wires carrying the "flying people" around.

Itami's analysis came to an end when a brave, or foolish depending on how you looked at it, police officer attempted to engage the unbelievable sight of mechs, fantasy creatures, and flying people with a six-round revolver. He was about to act when the mangled corpse of the police officer flew over Itami after getting hit by a huge mace wielded by a mech.

"Shit!" Itami cursed, and he withdrew a USP9 from his hidden holster on his back.

He didn't bother at all to shoot the mechs as their thick armor looked like nothing short of rifle-caliber AP rounds could penetrate, nor the flying creatures and people. His first target was a goblin that was targeting a trembling civilian. The shot hit true and splattered brain matter into the air before the goblin could harm its target.

"Run!" He shouted to the saved civilian before turning his attention to another target.

The next target was an ogre. Itami's instincts as a special forces operative told him to aim for the eyes. The 9x19mm round hit its mark and tumbled around the inside of the ogre's skull, causing severe damage that left the ogre collapsing onto the ground, half-dead.

One shot, that was all the ammo Itami used on his chosen targets as the 9x19mm Hollow Point round hit their mark. Each shot going where his training or instincts told him would do the most damage. Every round saving at least one civilian from the clutches of a fantasy creature.

"Reloading," Itami instinctively shouted as he had been trained to do to let his comrades know he needed covering fire.

The 15-round magazine hit the ground as Itami inserted a fresh clip into the USP9. The fresh magazine didn't last long as within seconds, 15 more fantasy creatures were disabled or dead.

Itami took slow steps backward while attempting to draw attention to himself and allow the fleeing civilians a chance. In some ways, it could be counted as a success as several monsters that would have otherwise gone for the fleeing civilians were drawn to him instead.

He calmly fired one round after another, reloading when a magazine was spent.

Nearly all the monsters, starting from the child-sized goblins to the larger-than-most-human orcs, went down with a well-placed shot between the eyes. The larger and sturdier creatures like ogres were the ones that took more than a single shot as their thick skulls sometimes managed to block or slow down the Hollow Point bullets, so the bullet was not fatal. Still, none of them survived a bullet to the throat as the windpipe or major blood vessels were destroyed.

"Run to the Imperial Palace!" He shouted to any civilian.

The lone responder was quickly joined by special police officers armed with more than the limited six-round .22 caliber revolvers given to normal Japanese police officers to hold the line. They included SWAT with pistol-caliber submachine guns or intermediate rounds like a personal defensive weapon.

Yet, the relief of having better-armed police officers to assist Itami didn't last long. The mechs that had been more focused on destroying any piece of technology they came across finally turned their attention to Itami and the police officers.

What had turned out to be a hundred or so police officers quickly dwindled as the monsters and mechs ignored the civilians and turned their attention to Itami and the police officers. Police officers were quickly turned into bloody gore either at the hands of mech weapons or various monsters attacking Ginza.

When the first police officer started to fall, many started to falter. It was when the fifth death occurred that the already nervous and scared police officers started to break as they fled for their lives.

Itami and those police officers still holding their line screamed for their fleeing comrades to return, but to no avail. One by one, more police officers started to flee, their little bravery broken as they saw one more death.

It was only Itami or police officers who were former military veterans that held the line.

Yet, courage alone wouldn't be enough when ammunition for their firearms ran out.

"Shit," Itami cursed as he went through the last of his ammo.

Itami gritted his teeth as he fired his last round, the empty click of his gun echoing in his ears. The mechs and monsters closed in, their relentless advance leaving him with no escape. He braced himself for the inevitable, his thoughts turning to the civilians he had tried to protect and the comrades who had fallen beside him.

Suddenly, a blinding light illuminated the battlefield, accompanied by a deafening explosion. Itami shielded his eyes, squinting through the glare to see a figure hovering in the air, surrounded by an otherworldly glow.

The figure descended, revealing a young girl with piercing blue eyes and golden hair, clad in a military uniform that seemed both familiar and foreign. She landed gracefully beside Itami, her gaze fixed on the approaching enemies.

"Stand back," she commanded, her voice filled with authority beyond her years.

Itami couldn't help but obey, watching in awe as the girl raised her hand, a sleek, vintage rifle materializing in her grasp. The weapon bore a striking resemblance to the iconic rifles used during the period between World War I and World War II, its polished wood stock and blued steel barrel gleaming in the light.

Upon closer inspection, Itami recognized the distinct features of a Karabiner 98k, a bolt-action rifle that had seen extensive use by the German military during the Second World War. The rifle's long barrel, curved bolt handle, and rear leaf sight gave it an air of timeless elegance and lethality.

Tanya took aim, her eyes narrowing as she focused on the approaching mechs and monsters. With a swift, precise motion, she worked the bolt, chambering a round before taking a firing stance. The rifle, despite its age, seemed to respond to her touch as if it were an extension of her own body.

Tanya took aim, her eyes narrowing as she focused on the approaching mechs and monsters. With a steady hand, she pulled the trigger, and a barrage of bullets erupted from the rifle, streaking towards the enemies with unerring precision.

As the bullets found their marks, they suddenly burst into brilliant flashes of light, engulfing the mechs and monsters in a series of explosive blasts. The air crackled with energy as the magical explosions tore through the enemy ranks, reducing them to smoldering heaps of twisted metal and charred flesh.

Itami stared in disbelief as the battlefield fell silent, the once-threatening horde decimated by the sheer power of Tanya's seemingly ordinary rifle and its magical ammunition. The smoke cleared, revealing the girl standing tall amidst the destruction, her weapon still smoking from the intense barrage.

The enemies were engulfed in a series of explosions, their bodies torn apart by the sheer power of the girl's magic. Itami stared in disbelief as the battlefield fell silent, the once-threatening horde reduced to smoldering ruins.

The girl turned to Itami, her eyes narrowing as she assessed him. "You were quite brave when you were so underequipped for the task at hand. I must commend you for your remaining true to your oath to protect the people despite what has happened."

Itami struggling to find his voice. "Who... who are you?" he managed to ask.

A hint of a smile played on the girl's lips. "I am Tanya von Degurechaff. I would stay and chat, but I have more people to save."

With those enigmatic words, Tanya took to the sky once more, leaving Itami to ponder the implications of her sudden appearance and the role she would play in the battles to come.


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