This…

Tanya tried, desperately, not to scream. Not in fear, of course, she'd long disabused herself of any need to outwardly express that emotion. No, she held back the desire to scream in confusion.

What the fuck was that?!

Ahead of them, Kopenhyagen, the administrative center of Norden, was burning. They'd approached from the south and come to the outskirts of the city, with a view of the waters that surrounded it. Above the burning wreckage, she could see the silhouettes of what must have been Aerial Mages. What else could they be?

Of course, there were several things that made Tanya extremely wary. She couldn't sense the barest hint of mana emanating from any of them – an extremely mentally complicated endeavor, even for her. Additionally, they didn't seem at all concerned with the flak that was bursting in the air around them as they rained fire down onto the city.

Tanya was a good mage and a smart woman, which meant she wasn't stupid enough to sit still in the air and allow enemy anti-air emplacements to get her range, so the fact that the were simply floating there, unmoving, and allowing themselves to be hit…

Multiple possibilities struck her mind – extremely advanced technology allowed for the complete dispersal of mana signatures being the main one. Giant hunks of metal floating next to each mage seemed to confirm that idea – she didn't know what else they'd be there for. Of course, they could also simply be illusions meant to distract them…

But the heat signatures they were giving off seemed to contradict that idea.

The mages themselves seemed to be wearing mostly white – perhaps meant to help blend into the sky? – but she couldn't make out many more features from her current distance.

Of course, more imposing than the mages were the sleek, black ships stationed throughout the harbor. From what little Tanya had seen during her interactions with the Empire's navy, they certainly didn't have anything as advanced as these – and was that an aircraft carrier?

Again, she stopped as she was about to order her troops forward. Their enemy… had stopped. Though the distant anti-air emplacements hadn't stopped firing, the Aerial Mages certainly had. As had the ships. Now, they were all facing-

"Rouge element designated: The Argent. Lay down your weapon and prepare for destruction."

The noise boomed across the open water, directed from the mages and the ships towards them. All the enemy's forces now seemed to be facing them.

She wondered how they had figured out her epithet so quickly. Unless… had they been gathering information covertly, from the moment that the Empire had appeared… wherever they were? Had they somehow been getting information since then? Were they the cause of this?

She would have liked to have some information on their enemy, but that wasn't an option… all she could get was whatever their actions betrayed.

Tanya licked her lips and turned to her men. "Alright, get ready to-"

And warnings began blaring in her ears. "Evasive maneuvers!" she shouted. As she dodged out of the way, heat signatures burst into existence from above them and opened fire. Great beams of burning fire, just as potent as anything the Bloody Valkyrie could throw at her, tore into the air they had just been in.

Tanya grit her teeth. How? Not a single bit of mana was there! Mage technology that efficient shouldn't have been possible-

Then, if it wasn't giving off any mana… were they in the future? Was all of that technology?

Oh shit.

She dodged around another salvo of that otherworldly light, wondering just how the hell she was going to come out of this one alive.

"Open fire at your leisure! Stick to each other-"

That was all she was able to get out before the… things completely forgot about the city below them and began assaulting the 203rd, from outside of the 203rd's range, along with additional forces that had been stationed above them in the clouds.

"Focus on the heat they give off!" she shouted, shooting at the pair that were heading down towards her. She dodged around another salvo and fired…

And her shot did nothing. She noticed no bright shield flaring to life, her bullet had impacted, the formula had deployed, they had been engulfed in an explosion… but there was no damage?!

She evaded another dozen blasts, focusing on the rest of the 203rd for a moment, to give orders…

Only to find that they weren't being targeted. They were, in fact, being completely ignored by the things that were assaulting Tanya.

She swore again. What was the point of having human shields if the enemy wouldn't target them?! "Weiss! Take over!"

That was the last thing she managed to say before she was sent scrambling through the air, twisting and turning, ducking and dodging, and doing her damndest to not get hit.

Not by the people flying around, but by their gear. It didn't seem that any of them even had weapons. She guessed they were – somehow – directing the hunks of metal following them around to fire at her.

In brief, momentary flashes, she surmised that the rest of the 203rd was being ignored in two senses: they weren't being targeted, and they also were not doing any damage, as she saw, several times, the things she was facing getting hit with the full brunt of several attacks.

Again, she flew down to the ground, hoping to dodge the next blast. She managed, and then flew up. If she gained height, perhaps the sun-

But they wouldn't allow her to. Every time she tried to rise, even more fire would be directed at her.

Amid the explosions, the sound of wrenching, tearing metal reached her ears, and Tanya chanced a glance over her shoulders. It seemed that her troops had figured out how to hurt them – though only one was currently damaged, every-

And she was moving again, trying to gain ground, avoiding every blast she could. They were slowly getting closer, closing her options for escape.

She flew down towards the water, twirling through the air. She felt a beam of light connect with one of her legs, but she swallowed the pain and continued, diving towards the water, out towards the sea-

Then she picked up the pace and abandoned the idea of merely feinting towards the water as the sound of jet engines pierced her memories. She dove downwards, trying to put distance between her enemies and herself.

She flew closer than ever to the water – a few inches above it and nothing more. If those ships were closer in technological ability to her first life than this one, then she couldn't even try to fly near them, much less make a run on any of them. Hopefully, her nation's own navy would get here soon and do… something. Take some of her enemy's attention, if nothing else.

Then, from below the water, an Aerial Mage appeared. Tanya snarled, readying her blade as the guns on the machine hovering close to the girl started to take aim. She struck with her blade, intent on flying right by-

Only to be wrenched back, her Reinforcement Formulas the only things between a force several times that of gravity and her delicate body. She spun around, ready to lash out-

And she was stopped and watched as the being, gripping her magically enhanced blade, squeezed. The metal shattered into a thousand fragments, which she wasn't even sure metal could do. Her eyes widening, she tried for a flying kick with her bad leg while one hand drifted towards her side-

The kick was smacked away and Tanya cried out as several things broke. Tossing the item that had been on her belt at the Mage, Tanya flew away-

And winced again as her back was caught in the blast of the grenade. Still, it seemed to have disoriented the mage, allowing Tanya to climb and gain her bearings again. She wove through the turbulent sea, dodging her pursuer-

Except, she wasn't even dodging them. Her clothing had already been torn and burnt open in several places, and her barrier had broken twice, but she had to keep dodging, to avoid her pursuers and the ships at sea and the burning in her leg-

She dove down, activating several spells and hoping that it would keep her safe and alive-

And she hit the water. A barrier kept her eyes dry, and she darted away. Hopefully-

Her hopes were shattered like her knife had been. A glance over her shoulder that all of them were following her. The water around her shook as the shells from those ships connected with it, boiling the water.

With a growl, she went back up. She could count on the 203rd to have taken at least a few of them off of her with the damage they seemed to be able to do, so perhaps-

Weaving through the waves of the water and sending several shots backwards at her pursuers, she looked at what her troops had been able to do…

She stared, aghast. How…

Only Viktoriya and Weiss were still flying, dueling five of the things. She grit her teeth…

The enemy was too technologically advanced for her regular spells to take on. Considering the strength of the Aerial Mage that had caught her, they may not even be people. Though the 203rd had managed to damage a few of their opposites, they hadn't been able to take any out. With dozens of them here, what looked to be even more arriving over the horizon, and the ships that seemed to be disgorging jet planes…

"Venerable god, I beseech thee: grant unto me your power so that I may cast these creatures to the hell they rose from to protect your flock."

-OxOxO-

Viktoriya was panicking. The euphoria at being able to harm these things by having the entire 203rd fire at the same time at the same enemy had long since passed. Dozens had fallen, hurtling down hundreds of meters down to the churning sea, taken out by their Aerial Mage opponents and… some kind of plane.

Though the forces in Kopenhyagen were trying to help, nothing they were doing had helped yet-

She grit her teeth. No! She would fight to the last moment! What had the past few years been, if-

And a huge burst of mana knocked her to the side of a beam of light that had been about to pierce her chest. She dodged another burst of light, hoping that it was what she thought it was-

"For ending the lives of the faithful, who have dutifully served god in all of his glory, prepare to be purged from this land, creatures of darkness and evil."

Viktoriya felt no more shots arcing towards her and stopped, momentarily, waiting to see-

Her eyes widened. The things that had been chasing the 203rd – she dimly recognized that Weiss was still airborne – were now converging on Tanya, intent on destroying her. Even the planes she could see in the distance had changed their trajectory.

And, instead of what usually happened – with her superior destroying everything in her path – she dodged and took the time to evade her pursuers, only shooting occasionally while spending every second twisting through the air.

Viktoriya shook her head. Right now…

She grimaced. Usually, she would stay out of the Major's way in this situation – it was similar enough to her battles with the Bloody Valkyrie that Tanya's 'no interference without guaranteed results' rule was likely to be in effect.

On the other hand, the Bloody Valkyrie was but one individual. There were dozens – and, if the black specks launching up from the ships on the horizon were anything to go by, soon to be hundreds – of enemies that Tanya wasn't damaging in any major way.

She flew to Weiss as they watched the aerial dance. Dozens of them were tracking Tanya, flying in a mass behind her. A few would occasionally attempt to disengage and find a different position, but she would immediately single them out and force them back into the mass following her.

"How…"

Weiss shook his head and gestured downwards. "We need to go down and help our comrades… and pray for reinforcements. I don't think even we can do anything in this situation."

Viktoriya nodded glumly. "I… we need support! We need to do something- maybe we can try and take down a few of those ships?" she asked. Weiss sighed tiredly. "We could try, but if those planes – if something that fast can even be called a plane – are anything to go by, do you really think we could get close?"

She looked around, trying desperately to figure out how, exactly, to refute his arguments… but she couldn't.

Swallowing her objections, she followed him down towards the city, her eyes never trailing away from her superior, wishing desperately that she could help.

-OxOxO-

This world, this timeline, this reality, was supposed to be… nothing. Completely worthless, as far as most – including the Sirens – were concerned.

Nothing even close to the Key existed, though they kept an eye out for them, just in case. Wisdom Cubes did not form naturally. There were no exotic forms of energy or matter to be studied, and there were certainly no extraterrestrial forms of life to dissect either.

So as they watched this… anomaly dance through the sky and destroy aging, decrepit models that weren't even useful as bait for the humans of this world, none of them could really understand the situation they were in.

"Umm… Observer, should we really be-"

"Yes."

The other four cringed away from the response – even Omitter, despite her not even being present at the battle against 'the Empire.'

Befitting the useless nature of this world, Sirens of equal worth were deployed to 'test' this version of humanity. Despite the uniformity they were supposed to embody across the vast times and spaces, some times and spaces were much farther from the location their personalities were stored, allowing for…

Defects.

And as defects were acquired over time, mistakes were made.

Simply throwing away resources, no matter how damaged, was anathema to the Sirens programming, however, which required… creative solutions.

So jobs that no one could possibly fail were given to Testers who couldn't run good tests, to Observers that got distracted from observing, to Purifiers who shied away from purifying, to Omitters who were unable to defend, and to Compilers who argued back to their Observers.

Jobs they couldn't fail were oh so conveniently located far enough away from their personalities that even more defects would build up, resulting in being given jobs that were even easier, until, one day, defects led to death.

Another beam of energy lanced out of the human – and Observer, lacking her usual nervousness, contended that this 'Argent' was indeed a human – causing Purifier to flinch. Tester, had she been a human, would have been sweating profusely. As it was, the orders she was giving out to the masses of Executor-class Sirens was causing her to overheat, necessitating her drifting down closer to the vast expanses of the Pacific.

Compiler could only bite her teeth as she watched. What was this accomplishing?

She opened her mouth to question Observer again when she spoke. "Tester. How many has the Argent destroyed?"

Despite being below them, Tester's voice echoed in their mind with crystal-clarity. "In total, twenty-five."

She nodded once more. "Let her take down another five. That should be enough…" she muttered under her breath. "'Let?' You think I've been-"

Observer ignored the rest of what Tester said – her orders would be followed – as she continued to watch the girl fight against the lifeless husks facing her, desperately focusing on her movement through the air and the force and energy she was outputting rather than what it meant.

This girl seemed to be the lynchpin, across the simulations she'd run… and sure, she wasn't always the best at running those kinds of simulations, but it seemed the combat data she had acquired was indeed valuable.

Despite her comment to Tester, this engagement was one of the more efficient first engagements they'd had with the girl.

"Why are we letting her gain insight into how we operate?" Compiler demanded petulantly. Observer resisted the urge to laugh – or was this feeling in her chest the urge to weep?

As a rule, Sirens did not fear death. They served a higher purpose, and having a body be destroyed meant nothing when one could transfer their consciousness to another.

And yet…

She shook her head as their forces began to back off. Tester had their mass-produced ships strafe the city a few more times as the girl drifted towards the waiting arms of her fellow humans and her… power, energy, whatever it was, it slowly disappeared as if it had never been there.

She wasn't sure what that power was, but she did have her data. Her lovely, perfect data, that was a simplification of the chaos present in the universe.

And her data told her that the Argent – a human – could gain the power to rival Kansen, usually by saying a prayer to her God. It seemed to have a cost, but it wasn't readily apparent what it was… not that it mattered what the cost was.

"I needed to make sure that her ability to summon energy from seemingly nowhere was not a fluke," she finally answered. That wasn't the only reason, of course. The glittering shards of what looked to be blue glass scattered in the sea and on the land before them would ensure the Empire's ability to make a few Kansen without interference – or aid – from any other country.

Her stated reason was the main one, however.

The ability for a country to materialize from out of nowhere was incredibly worrying, as far as the purpose of the Sirens went. If this was some unexplainable 'phenomena', then it could happen again, perhaps in a world that was more important, polluting potentially important tests. If this were some ploy of the Ashes or even one of the more successful versions of humanity, though, the ability would be incredibly worrying.

But the ability for a human to go toe-to-toe with a Kansen?

That could not be allowed to spread beyond this world. The Sirens, for as numerous as they were, did not have the resources to fight millions or even billions of entities with the power of Kansen on every world they were trying to test.

However.

Within the enormity of this crisis, an opportunity presented itself. Something was preventing them from contacting anyone outside of this world…

And that girl seemed to be able to generate quite a bit of power. Perhaps, if focused using their technology, enough to break through the barrier preventing their communication.

That would be the end of it. If the world could not be reset to a point before the arrival of the Empire, then it would simply have to be destroyed beneath the nigh-infinite weight of the resources the Sirens would bring to bear.

Observer turned around. Purifier was hiding behind Compiler, Tester was panting, and she could see, through cameras surrounding Omitter in the north pole, that she wanted nothing more than to charge away from the area she was supposed to be protecting to pick a fight with the Argent.

Despite the urge she felt to hide away in a mirror sea and bury herself in her data, she wouldn't. That, too, had led to the Sirens' defeat.

And as she began to plant some very helpful evidence for the humans to find that pointed them to this place and that girl, she resolved that she would not, could not, let the Sirens fail, regardless of her defects.

-OxOxO-

A/N 1: Much more action this chapter, as well as laying out the goals of the Sirens and the stakes if we let the bad guys win. Next chapter will see forces around this new world begin to react to the new situation they find themselves in.

A/N 2: If you'd like to donate to support me monetarily, gain access to the monthly poll, and gain access to my (very long) summary of the KonoSuba Light Novels, search for Sugarcane Soldier on the website of the Patrons.

A/N 3: Thanks to lekille for being a Basic Patron.

Many thanks to Afforess and Twin for being Super Patrons.

A big thank you to WarmasterOku for being an Ultra Patron.