Anikong: no, even peak canon Aurora and Elizabeth would have troubles against coordinated attack of a squad of high-level guild. SG would get deleted.

"Victoria, do you see what I see…?"

"Indeed, my Lord," pink-haired woman squinted in disgust, "Such an unsightly, messy place. Absolutely unfitting of someone of your status!"

Cid only sighed and looked over once again. Well, he did, in fact, appear in another world.

It's just that this another world turned out to be his own previous world. Earth.

Well, at the very least, Hams and Todd are gonna have a field day once he gets his hands on the knowledge that was accumulated by humanity. That is, if he manages to find the place where it's stored… Come to think of it, it would be a good time to check out his Infosphere connection ability…

Cid concentrated. A beautiful sight appeared in his mind; he felt like swimming in the ocean of knowledge… That is, until he tried to give a question to this ocean. The moment he established contact, all the information started pouring into his mind.

He groaned and forcefully cut the connection.

"Lord Shadow?!" Victoria appeared in front of him as he rubbed his forehead.

"It's fine, just tried to cheat my way and quickly find what I wanted," he sighed.

"Cheat…?" she tilted her head.

"Forget about it, I now know what we should do."

"As expected of my Lord!" she beamed.

'Yeah, having a fanatical worshipper that thinks you can do no wrong is certainly reassuring when going into the unknown.'

Hams once again drilled him, this time about the fact that his soul still didn't recover yet, so he only should sit down and suffice with Omnispeech (made up name; that thing that allowed demons to speak in every language).

So, about where they appeared. Turned out, something strange has happened, and now Japan (because everywhere he looks he can see Japanese symbols) has become a post-apocalypse sight: broken cars, rotting corpses, smashed devices… And, of course, cracking buildings. Oh, and "Tanaka" on one of the buildings, looks like a store. Yeah, it's 100% his old city.

"Now, listen to me: the name of this world is 'Earth'. The country we are in is called Japan. This is… or rather, was one of the cities. However…" dramatic pause! "As you can see, calamity has fallen upon denizens of this world…"

Victoria listened to him with her mouth open as they walked into the building..

"Hmm…" oh, a newspaper; a bit old and torn, but good anyway, "'Japan fell'? How interesting, so they could not overcome the calamity…" he sighed and started looking around to see if anything else of interest was here; there was, but these things were completely unusable.

Shame. The computer that was in office room completely died. A real shame; if they could access the Internet (granted, if it was still intact with all the post-apocalypse stuff), he would not need to run around in search for books and whatnot.

"My Lord, you can already read this language?…" Hams and Todd sent out an alarm about overflowing Faith.

"Hmm?…" oh, right, "As I always said, all knowledge is inter-connected. Whenever you learn one thing, you place foundation to learn a thousand other. This is why it's important to have a vast amount of knowledge; who knows if that one thing you deemed useless would be the important piece unlocking a grand mystery?"

Yes! Yes! That was so cool! Hams, add this one to the "cool speech" list!… Thank you!

"So this is the Shadow Wisdom Shades were talking about…" Victoria whispered.

Yeah, looks like he overloaded her here. Nice, now he can think what to do next… Hmm? What are you saying, Todd? "Nishino University"?… Oh, right!

"Follow me, Victoria. It is time for us to uncover everything this world has to offer," and a cool swing of the cape to look mysterious and cool. Looking mysterious and cool is +100 CHA!

"Hey, Gamer, how it's going?"

"Stop interrupting me, I am working on the System!"

"Yeah, yeah, we heard that. First time ever you experienced a bug since its creation, isn't it?"

"Yes, though it was not a bug, it's just that some shee- Players met some kind of a deity and managed to make it mad. The result? You see it yourself."

"Come on, Gamer, we all know what these 'Players' actually are."

"Yeah, a livestock, you don't need to tell me that, I am the one who created the System after all!"

"Well, you are not the only one…"

"But certainly the first and the biggest!"

"Someone would beg to differ."

"Huh? Who is it? Tell me, I'll cut out the livestream privileges for them and they can go and roll to other System!"

"Don't think you can cut out his privileges."

"What- Oh. Yeah, even I wouldn't want to inquire his wrath."

"Thought so."

"But listen, what a great idea I got, right?"

"…Not agai-"

"Just think about it: use the external tool that would grant the one who has it a little bit of your Faith in order to quickly increase their power, then they give away their own Faith onto you! But you continue the cycle, and some time after you have a bunch of lower gods on your beck and call! But the best part is not even it, oh no! Sometimes so-called 'Players' decide that they now can overthrow me!"

"Yeah, because they can't use their powers without the System."

"Exactly! The moment I turn off the System for them, the so-called archmage can't even light up a small flame, while the master swordsman can't even take their own weapon right! And it's not because I sealed their power or anything, no! It's because these idiots are so dependent on the System doing everything for them that they didn't even bother to learn it themselves! They just know that they should press a cool-looking button, and after that boom! They defeated everyone! Idiots!"

"Uh, Gamer, that's the seventh time this cycle you tell us-"

"Yeah, archmages! So strong, so powerful, a lot of mana, some even step onto the gods' level! Ah, what an irony… These idiots don't even know the formula for the easiest spell, neither do they have enough willpower and magic control to just use it without one! These looks on their faces when they realize they can't even use their own powers… Hmm, some even die right here and then because their own energy breaks out of their body."

"And then you eat them."

"Indeed, why else would I let them grow? They are livestock, after all."

"Though you still let us watch them and give some rewards."

"Well, why not? Whatever they get in reward is but a part of what you pay me to use my pawns, anyway."

"Oh, remember that one time when they tried to make an alliance against you?"

"…Pfft, why did you remind me of that?! Their 'clan territories' are nothing more but a part of my domain! No wonder the moment I saw all of them being in them, I just closed them off and crushed everyone!"

"Some gods were disappointed, though."

"Those that invested into these idiots? They are no saner than the idiots themselves. Who would even invest into other god's property?"

"True. Oh, one more thing…"

"Hmm…" Cid looked over the abandoned hospital building.

"It reeks of death," Victoria noted as she tore the doors open.

'Indeed,' was all Cid could think of upon seeing the mutilated bodies on the upper floors.

His inner poet even wanted to say something along the lines of "seas of blood have flooded the place that once served as temple of life"- oh, he already said that.

"And… I smell… Blood!" Victoria's eyes widened as smile of insanity made its way onto her face.

He definitely shouldn't have listened to Hams, but eh, it is what it is… Hmm? Victoria crushed yet another door and found lots of monsters! And these monsters…

"Well, well, well," his light-hearted chuckle for some reason frightened the monsters, "seems like we found another set of ingredients…" he noticed something peculiar, "Aren't they weaker than those who attacked Oriana despite looking like them?"

For Cid the difference was minuscule, of course, but still, could it be because Earth itself was not a magical world and therefore couldn't sustain magical entities? If so… Oh, wait, his magic does actually leak into the surroundings, but only that which exceeds his maximum capacity. Hams lamented that he didn't manage to create something to store the excessive mana. Well, for him that was nothing, his natural regeneration was orders of magnitude higher than whatever the environment wanted to get, so why not? Let's give his old world a touch of magic!

"My Lord, what do I do with them?" Victoria inquired with beaming eyes.

"Eh," Hams tried to protest about waste of resources, but after getting jab from Todd about still not being able to create a proper additional space sat down in despair, "just remove them."

"As you wish, my Lord!" fanatic fanatically raised her fanatic's weapon and with fanatical glee started chopping down the monsters that did not wish to become fanatics… did he use too much "fanatic"? Of course not. Did she ask for their opinion? Hell nah.

'Hmm, Nishino University…' he thought lazily as he watched Victoria making a quick work out of the monsters.

In his past life this thing was a premium-level education center, if he could say that. An average man like Minoru (his past name; he still remembers it!) could never hope to get into it. He even wanted to just break all the windows for shit and giggles…

Well, now he could just waltz into it and take everything he wanted! Hams was drooling at the amount of knowledge he would get!

"You finished, Victoria?" stupid question, considering not a single beast escaped the onslaught at the hands of this cute woman, but eh.

"Yes, my Lord!" she hugged her weapon as she stared at him with slasher's smile and completely lifeless eyes. It's a bit scary, if he's being honest… Especially considering her face was painted in blood of dead monsters.

"Then…" hm? There was someone else? "Change of plans, Victoria, we wait for our guests."

"Guests…?" she tilted her head, and then realization hit her, "Oh, I can sense them… Not beasts… Humans?"

"Hmm."

Should he play the role of mob…? Alright, alright, Hams, I heard you, no playing around this time! Geez…

"Sector is clear," one of the squad members reported and stepped forward.

Akane Nishino could only curse and tackle him on the ground, just in time to save him from Magic Beast's attack.

"Not clear, not clear!" she shouted to get everyone's attention. "A-One-Three!"

Upon receiving an order they immediately assumed a formation around the Beast. They prepared their weapons and watched it. Swords, of course.

For some reason, modern weapons did not work that well against Magic Beasts. Scientists theorized it was because firearms — or, to be more precise, bullets, — did not contain human's magic energy, however infinitesimal the amount may be. Swords, on the other hand, were always in contact with one's hand, having a constant supply of that energy. That energy, they thought, was the reason Knights — soldiers that were able to fight against Beasts — were way more effective against Magic Beasts than conventional firearms. In fact, unless the firepower used was able to overpower Beasts' natural regeneration and kill it instantly, no matter how many bullets you waste, you will never kill them.

On the other hand, even a single sword slash from a Knight will leave a wound that will not close for several minutes. Of course, that depends on strength of Knight and Beast, their difference, et cetera…

And that was the core of the problem. Everything she said was applicable at day.

"Goddamnit, it's strong…" squad member panted heavily.

At night, Magic Beasts gain a huge increase in their prowess, to the point where a weak Beast that a Knight could kill in dozens without breaking a sweat during the day would pose a severe threat to that same Knight at night.

And right now, it was nighttime. Which means that she will have to tap onto her powers…

"Huh?"

Beast suddenly stopped and whimpered. Before anyone could understand what was going on, a flash of purple suddenly appeared. Moments later, Beast was disintegrated.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

Sound of footsteps. With heels.

From the darkness, two figures stepped in.

Akane gasped upon seeing the beauty of the woman in front of her. Her light-pink hair, stern gaze of blue eyes, curves that would rival those of top models, yet looked completely natural… Not to mention, she was tall. Almost matching the height of another person. The only reason Akane was not enchanted by the sight was an excessive amount of Beasts' blood that stained her pure skin.

And then, Akane felt.

"What- What is this?…" squad members almost fell on their knees.

Akane couldn't fault them. She felt the same.

After all, while the woman that came out looked like a Goddess that descended to purge the filthy Beasts rampaging across the world, the other figure was a man clad in darkness itself. His face couldn't even be seen, with the only feature that was allowed to be seen being the two red orbs watching their every move.

"Greetings."

He raised his hand. Akane gulped and stepped forward.

"I am Akane Nishino, a Knight from Messiah," she was barely able to speak coherently, but it is what it takes to save humanity, she will do so.

"Wonderful," she heard entity's (she had doubts if he could be called human).

The man slowly walked closer to her. She gulped again and waited.

He stopped in front of her and lowered his head, his two red orbs staring right into her soul.

"You… are interesting."

Her breath hitched as she felt like every single secret of hers was laid bare in front of him.

"I am Shadow, the one who lurks in shadows and hunts down the shadows."

'Shadow,' she repeated.

"Now, tell me: what is it you wish for?"

Her wish… To save the world… And meet that boy once more…

"And what are you willing to give for that?"