Chapter 138: The Savior

There was a boy I feared. After Minoru-kun left this world, he started killing people and become known throughout Japan as the Occult Killer. I don't really know if it's to avenge Minoru-kun's death or something else… but one thing I'm certain of… is that his murders and the rituals he performed on the site of his murders summoned the demonic monsters that is currently ravaging our world. He vanished just as soon as the monsters started appearing.

Our modern weaponry was useless against them. The Japanese government called for reinforcements from their allies, especially the USA, only to be met with silence as even America is struggling against monster attacks of their own. I even heard of them nuking some of their own cities, only to stop when the backlash became too much for them to handle. Other countries, even superpowers such as Russia and China are too busy handling their own monster problem. It seems that the monster attacks have become a worldwide problem. Perhaps not a single country is spared from their wrath. Smaller countries fell immediately one by one, their lands turned to nests for the monsters, forcing humanity closer and closer to extinction.

Facing this imminent extinction, the United Nations gathered their remaining member nations and instead of trying to find a solution to the problem, they started blaming each other and demanded compensations for nothing. Truly, the monsters have revealed humanity's true face.

Despite suffering the most damage due to being the very first country to be attacked by the monsters and having received absolutely no help from allies, Japan survived the monstrous rampage by being the first country to discover and utilize the power of magic, the only power capable of harming and killing the monsters.

Yes… magic, something that used to be mere fairy tale, superstition and fantasy now becomes reality.

Interest in magic and the occult started since Tetsuya-kun's murdering spree and it led to the discovery of actual magic after the monster attacks, which makes not only occultists practicing it, even the government and some independent organizations started funding several researches into magic. My family, the Nishino Zaibatsu, was among the independent organizations and also among the first to discover practical use of magic.

Only after we discovered magic that our allies, the American government especially, started offering military help in exchange for a piece of the pie, even though their aid is no longer needed. After a lot more quarrels and blame games in the UN, those countries eventually discovered magic by themselves. By then though, Japan's magical research is already one step ahead of them even if we're not united. With our research, we began making people capable of wielding magic to fight against the monsters. We called these people "Awakeners".

Through the contributions of our researchers, my brother included, I became an Awakener, one of the few people capable of wielding magic, and I used said powers to defend the settlement that our family ruled, Messiah, a name taken from Christianity. To match that name, I, the strongest "Knight" of the settlement, was also called the Savior. Being called that is not only embarrassing but also placed unnecessary burdens and expectation upon my shoulders, bigger than the ones I used to carry as a mere actress.

Of course I cannot say that I want no part in it even though my family pretty much threw me to the wolves and made me their propaganda tool without my consent. "It's your duty as the heiress of the Nishino Zaibatsu!" they said. Fucking old men.

The bright thing is… I'm stronger now. I no longer have to worry about kidnappers and serial killers. I could probably even handle Tetsuya-kun should he come for me! It's been three years since then! I'm not afraid anymore! I'm not!

Speaking of Tetsuya-kun, his alter ego, the Occult Killer, has also influenced some like minded serial killers and crazy people into forming the Doomsday Cult, a cult that worships him as a god and sought to eradicate humanity, believing that humanity deserved to be punished.

Their Cult has... unfortunately, grown into a powerful organization, surpassing even the likes of Aum Shinrikyo, thanks to how advanced their magical technology is. They even have the power to tame and control some of the monsters and are using them against the rest of humanity.

They have destroyed several settlements and the rest of us live in fear of being their next target. I personally have encountered them several times but only in minor skirmishes.

"Nishino-san! We're ready to patrol!" One of my subordinates reported to me, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Good. Let's go." I replied as I left my room, clad in black and red magical full body suit resembling ones worn by superheroes. I must admit that it's kinda embarrassing as the body suit reveals my body curves and attracted the eyes of so many men but after enduring the leers for some time, I got used to it. The body suit is quite practical in combat after all since it's protective (it uses the wearer's magic to protect the body of the wearer so that even bullets won't harm the wearer), light and flexible.

I carried my etherite katana, a weapon manufactured by our scientists to be harder than steel and capable of conducting magic, perfect weapon for an Awakener like me. My squad members, numbering 5 people of both men and women, are wearing the same body suit as I am and carried katanas of their own. 2 of them even carried naginatas. We would've used more modern weapons like magical guns but unfortunately magic disperses quickly in the air without proper conductor and thus we had to resort to using melee weapons. Luckily we are strong enough to match most of the monsters despite that.

We left the gate of Messiah and started our patrol through the ruined town of what was once a wonderful city. Our mission is simple; cull the number of the monsters by killing as many as we can so that their numbers won't grow too quickly and overwhelms us. It is impossible to exterminate them all because their nests are too well protected and the casualties we'll suffer from it would be too great even if we succeeded in destroying just one nest. And even if we destroyed a nest, other species/colony would just take over the nest in no time at all whilst we would need a lot of time to recuperate from our losses. In other words, not worth the effort.

Without me noticing, my feet took me to Sakurazaka High School, my former school. It seems that reminiscing the past has made me come here. Minoru-kun…

"Nishino-san. Is there something wrong?"

"Nothing. Let's continue our patrol." I said as I turned away from the ruins of my former school, where I met the boy whom I would later have feelings for… and the boy who would invade my nightmares almost every night.

We dispatched several monsters on our patrol and went back home before it gets dark.

"Good work today, Nishino-san!"

"You too!"

I exchanged words with my squad members before returning to my room to take a bath.

But before I could even take off my body suit, there's a knock on my door. I sighed before letting whoever it was in.

"Good evening, sister." It's my brother, Akira Nishino.

"Good evening brother. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I'm here to inform you that your schedule tomorrow has changed. You need to attend the meeting with the imperial family in order to forge connections. They're offering you to marry the prince." How ridiculous. Father is the one to refuse to work with the imperial family when the crisis started, which turned Messiah into an independent faction, perhaps even an independent state. And now you want to use me to fix relations with them? I hate politics.

"I refuse. Culling the numbers of the monsters is more important."

"You can't run away forever, sister. This is necessary for the survival of Messiah. As the heiress of the Nishino Zaibatsu-"

"Why don't you be the one to marry one of the imperial princesses and become the heir to not only the Nishino Zaibatsu but even the emperor, brother? You're the older one."

"Hmph. I'm a mere researcher. You however, are something more." You mean I'm your figurehead leader that you can control in the shadows? Someone you can just marry off to forge relation to other families like we're some kind of feudal aristocrats? I know your game, brother. I used to trust you because I thought you're different from our father and those scheming old men in his inner circle but then you betrayed me and made me your propaganda piece. No more.

"I'm just a fighter."

"And the leader of our Knights, the protectors of Messiah."

"Whatever! My answer still sta-"

*BOOOM*

My words are interrupted by an explosion. It's a good thing that I haven't taken off my combat suit which means I can respond to this incident quickly.

"Our talk is not finished, sister. After you're finished-" I didn't even bother hearing the rest of his words as I immediately exited my room to head into the residential district, where the explosion occurred. There I saw a giant monster resembling wolf but with black carapace coating its body instead of fur and with reptile-like tail. Standing above the monster's horned head is a black cloaked figure wearing a white skull mask.

"It's them! It's the Doomsday Cult!"

"Kyaaaah! A monster!"

"Ruuun!"

"Uwaaaahhh!"

The citizens of Messiah ran away as the monster began rampaging around the settlement.

"Protect the citizens!" I shouted to the Knights who gathered in response to the emergency situation and we began coordinating our attacks to slowly kill the monster.

Slicing the beast's legs bit by bit with our etherite weapons, we eventually disabled one of the beast's legs, only for it to retaliate by attacking us by using its tail as a whip. A few of the Knights are sent flying by the monster's tail. But with one of its legs down, we managed to get closer with the head. I jump towards its head and immediately faced the robed figure with the skull mask.

But as I was about to cut him down, he was stabbed from behind.

"What?" I exclaimed as I landed in front of the robed figure without managing to slash him. Behind him is a man wearing a red bodysuit with helmet that resembles—

"You are…?"

"Glad you asked, Savior! I am Magiranger Red!" The man in red suit shouted as he threw away the cloaked man he just stabbed while striking a pose. 2 more men, one wearing blue body suit and another wearing green bodysuit, appeared beside him. Both striking poses as well.

"And I am Magiranger Blue!"

"I am Magiranger Green!"

"Together we are… MAGIRANGER!" They declared as an explosion effect appeared behind them, harming the monster's back, causing it to roar and flail around, forcing us all to jump away from its head.

"What are you doing here!? This area is out of your jurisdiction!" I shouted to the… rangers… Awakeners who turned themselves into Super Sentai (Power Rangers) and are supposed to belong to another faction and thus are not welcome here.

"We came here in response to a monster threat and are here to save you all!" Bullshit. I bet you worked together with that cultist to infiltrate Messiah.

"And we are also here to extend our invitation to you, Savior! Become our pink ranger! Together we shall be the heroes that will save humanity from these monsters!" The red one extends his hand in invitation. Of course many factions wants to poach talents from each other. And even if your faces are hidden by your helmets, I can still sense you three leering at me. How insulting, treating me like a sexual object.

"I refuse."

"Is that so? If you refuse to join us, then have fun defeating the monster on your own." Using threats, eh? But unfortunately for you, it won't work on me.

I enhanced my body using magic and moved quickly to decapitate the monster before it could continue its rampage. I then turned back to the rangers as their body language can't hide how surprised they are.

"As you can see here, we are doing just fine. Your assistance was never required."

"Hmph. Very well. We shall retreat for today. But mark my words! We-"

"You've got some nerve if you think you can just get away after you entered Messiah without permission and tried to poach our talents, scum!" Shouted one of our Knights, a brutish man who used to be one of my classmates, Saejima Yuudai.

"We only have business with the Savior! Not you! But for now, we must-" His words are interrupted as all of us Awakeners sensed a terrifying presence that suddenly appeared in the sky.

All of our attention is turned towards a sky where a black hole emerged. Some people speculated that the monsters currently invading our world came from portals such as that one. Is the presence we felt another monster? Or… something worse?

It's… something worse indeed. I can somehow feel it even though this is the first time I sensed that presence… for the one who emerged from the portal… is a robed figure wearing a skull mask. One might think that this robed figure is just another member of the Doomsday Cult but… I know for sure that he's… the Occult Killer. I know because all the fear and trauma that I thought I have suppressed all those years ago resurfaced immediately when I saw his red glowing eyes staring at me… at all of us.

Tetsuya-kun… please… have mercy…!

Author's Note:

The situation on Earth is different from canon due to the Occult Killer's influence. Akane even wore body suit instead of the high school uniform (which makes no sense as combat uniform in my opinion). Also introduced some factions like the Power Rangers faction and the Doomsday Cult into the mix.

Now… how will our Necromancer fare in his old world? Find out on the next episode of The Rangers in Shadow!

P.S: Aum Shinrikyo is a real terrorist cult who used to launch deadly attacks in Japan back in 1995.

borregodillon9: Another great chapter As always.

Answer: Thanks for enjoying it as always.

Guest: There's the evil has standards trope I was looking for. My boy ain't no rapist.

I am happy that I guessed Thanatos' identity on the first try. My second guess would have been Necromancer from the future after he achieved one winged angel status.

Also, Sherry... you're starting to scare me.

Answer: Congrats on your guess. Lol the second option sounds like Jenova-ish stuff. To be honest, Jenova was one of the inspirations when creating Thanatos' form, the other being ORT from Type-Moon.

And I can't forget that Sherry is a yandere in this fic, which is why the "I need you" part

TheAbyssWatcher: When Shadow finally escaped the 4th realm, it will be to earth, won't it? Only to once again meet his fated nemesis in a world they once belong. Earth is already a ruin with the coming of demons, but the destruction these two can bring is something else. Not to mention the eldritch abomination that is Thananstos. Whoever left on Earth would wish they didn't make it through the apocalypse when these three arrive.

Answer: We shall see how that goes.

Anime0CC0Manga: will there be multiple endings , like one ending Necro win, another ending where Shadow win , maybe a weird ending where they switched places ?

Answer: No plans for that but that does sounds interesting. I'll consider it.

TheVirtualPug: You could make it so that "Thanatos" is believed to be Necromancer's true form who is trying to retrieve the part of himself that ended up getting stuck inside "Claude's" soul. This fragment of "Thanatos" is what is influencing him and is trying to take over. The fragment's goal is to reunite with its other form "Thanatos." This was why the Necromancer was born. Meanwhile, Claude is 'fighting' back against its control while also using the fragment's power and knowledge to 'protect' those close to him. (hehe) Like trying to take down the cult from the inside etc. You could even have this whole revelation that he didn't actually kidnap his sister but had actually saved her from the cult. You could make it seem to everyone else that his evil deeds are 'secretly' done with good intentions. (hehe again) You could even have a reason that SG could come up with for why he acts like such a monster (taking up all the blame and responsibility) Everyone else might believe that he's absolving everyone else's sins by taking them up himself. This could explain his over-the-top evil and Chuuni behavior in their eyes. (Funny misunderstanding of Claude's motives. It makes it seem almost tragic if you didn't know he's just doing it for fun)

Answer: Good idea. I'll take it into consideration.

DerTrap: I have a neat little idea for the japan arc. It is more like a non canonical comedy chapter, in where we see Shadow and Necromancer respectively. They both then discover 2 similair and slightly different looking books, "The Eminence in Shadow" and "The Necromancer in Shadow", both basically being a retelling of everything that has happened until now in this story. But from their point of view respectively. As it would be funny to see their individual reactions to these books, as a gigantic "WTF!" moment for them. Ending with them both looking at the reader, both saying "Huh?". Basically a chapter for pure comedy, again non canon of course.

Answer: Hmm… Not that sure about that. I kind of have a different idea, which I cannot tell for now.