If you did it, then you have to take responsibility for the consequences! ( ) / Hayate: What's a Familia? ( )

"Raising Heart/Lightning Axe!"

"Set Up!" ×2

In a burst of light, Nanoha and Fate instantly transformed into Magical Girls.

The sight made Serafleur's eyes shine.

"Sana-chan! Sana-chan! Those are Magical Girls! Real Magical Girls! There really are Magical Girls in this world!"

Serafleur kept shaking her younger sister, while Asuna at that moment...

Well! She didn't want to talk right now, because her face hurt!

If You Did It, You Have to Bear the Consequences!

Inside a bookstore, Ai silently read the book in her hands.

The title of the book was War of the Beasts...

As she read its contents, a mocking expression couldn't help appearing on Ai's face.

According to the investigations conducted by her, Illya, and the others, this world should have been one without mysteries...

After all, none of the Gastrea Ai had encountered so far possessed any unusual abilities.

Of course, by unusual abilities, she meant powers associated with the mysterious side, not the powerful vitality inherent to those creatures.

This world was a standard apocalypse world. When Ai and the others arrived, they had been left utterly speechless.

Busujima Saeko, Haibara Ai, Ilyasviel, Miyu, and Illyasviel von Einzbern...

The five of them were one team, responsible for selling systems in this world, but...

Looking at this standard apocalypse world, none of them wanted to sell anything. Ai herself felt like ignoring the people of this world, turning around, and running straight back to their original world.

The moment they arrived in this world, they had landed in a place called the Outer Area.

It was a ruin enclosed by the Great Stone Monument, destroyed during the War of the Beasts and never rebuilt since. It had now become a place for homeless Cursed Children.

These Cursed Children were like children infected with the Zombie Virus who had not turned into zombies, but had instead gained the strength of zombies from it. Just replace zombies with Gastrea...

Yet those pitiful and hateful ordinary people needed the Cursed Children to help them fight, while also hating those children, leaving them homeless and freely beating, abusing, and killing them... Yes, killing them!

Though these Cursed Children possessed great power, mentally, they were still ordinary children.

When facing Gastrea, they might display superhuman combat strength. But when confronted by adults, these children did not dare resist at all. They were children in the end, and this meant that whenever some Cursed Children appeared alone, they could be beaten by people at any time, or even killed by police officers.

Yes, police officers... After all, these officers were only responsible for maintaining public order. They were not Civil Security officers who fought alongside Cursed Children, so some officers even secretly shot those Cursed Children dead.

Ai was not exaggerating. She and Illyasviel von Einzbern had discovered this while coming from the Outer Area.

A Cursed Child who could only steal to survive was beaten by a group of people before being taken away by two police officers. Those officers did not take the Cursed Child away for questioning. Instead, they brought her to an empty place and actually prepared to shoot her. If Ai and Illyasviel von Einzbern had not noticed something was wrong with the two officers, secretly followed them, and discovered what was happening, the two of them would not have acted immediately and killed those officers.

Illyasviel von Einzbern had taken that child back to the Outer Area, while Ai stayed here to continue reading.

Looking at War of the Beasts, Ai couldn't help laughing inwardly.

Should she try having these Cursed Children overthrow the Tokyo Area... and let the Cursed Children establish a country? Ai genuinely had such a thought, and it was one that could very likely be realized.

The combat power of their group was practically invincible in this world. Absolutely no one could defeat them!

"This really is a headache. Honestly, this world isn't suitable for a child like Illya to remain in..."

Ai put down the book in her hands and muttered to herself.

If a pure and innocent child like Illya stayed here for too long, the cruelty of reality would probably cast a shadow over her heart!

That was also why Ai and Illyasviel von Einzbern had not brought Illya along. Letting Illya stay with those children might be better. If Illya came to the Tokyo Area, she probably would not be able to endure the darkness here.

The darkness in people's hearts here was even more excessive than she had imagined...

"Ai..." Illyasviel von Einzbern suddenly walked in, making Ai immediately turn toward her.

"Looks like you were delayed on the way. Did something happen...?"

Given Illyasviel von Einzbern's speed, she should not have taken this long. And besides... Ai could smell a trace of blood.

It seemed quite a few people had died by Illyasviel von Einzbern's hand along the way...

"I merely took that child to buy some better clothes, and I thought I could buy some clothes for the children in the Outer Area while I was at it. But because a Cursed Child was the one buying them, the clothing store refused to sell to us. Some people even wanted to call the police and frame us, so I could only take action directly! It's not my fault. I was forced into it..."

Illyasviel von Einzbern's tone was full of helplessness, leaving Ai at a loss for words.

She did not say Illyasviel von Einzbern had done anything wrong. After all, special circumstances called for special measures!

When dealing with such a dark world, only cruel methods could be used to handle matters.

"You didn't let Illya find out, did you...?" Ai only asked that.

No matter what, Ai was still somewhat worried that the child would be unable to accept talk of killing people.

"Don't worry. I didn't tell her. Although Ruby, Sapphire, and Miyu may have noticed, they wouldn't go out of their way to tell Illya..." Illyasviel von Einzbern said calmly, her hands on her hips.

"That's good. Let's go back now..."

"Yeah..." Illyasviel von Einzbern nodded and left the bookstore with Ai.

"What are you planning to do in this world? I have a feeling the systems Teacher Chu Chen gave us won't sell this time. Or are we going to give them to those children? But what could those children use in exchange?"

Illyasviel von Einzbern's gaze settled on Ai. Among them all, Ai had the best mind, so naturally they listened to her. All they needed to do was carry out Ai's orders.

"No rush. This was a long-term mission to begin with... Let's deal with what's right in front of us first. We'll use the Outer Area as our foundation and gradually involve ourselves in this world's affairs. The more people we come into contact with, the more systems we can sell, right? So our first priority is to gradually expand from the Outer Area and continuously take in those Cursed Children..."

"There are only four of us. Can we protect that many children?" Illyasviel von Einzbern couldn't help complaining.

If there were too many people, it would be difficult for them to manage them as well...

In response, Ai merely smiled and glanced at Illyasviel von Einzbern.

"Tell me, if we brought together the strength of these Cursed Children, wouldn't that amount to an additional powerful force for Saeko's world?"

"Of course it would. And then? Are you planning to send these children to Saeko's world?"

Illyasviel von Einzbern still did not grasp Ai's meaning.

"What I mean is that these children have been strengthened by the Gastrea Virus. Their foundations are extremely high compared to ordinary people, and they could absolutely prove useful in any world. This world is clearly no longer suitable for them. No matter what, the vast majority of humanity in this world has harmed them. Wounds like that cannot possibly heal in just a few decades. Rather than that, we might as well ask through the System Network whether the other teams, in other worlds, have somewhere these children can live. Saeko's world was only an example..."

Ai said this, yet she had no intention whatsoever of considering the consequences of this world losing its Cursed Children.

Since they had done certain things, they had to bear the consequences themselves.

There was no medicine for regret in this world!

What Is a Familia?

Loki Familia

"Haaahhhhhhh!"

A young Beastman with wolf-like ears and a tail, lightning-shaped tattoos on his face, and the appearance of a delinquent was engaged in a fierce battle with Zafira of the Wind Cavalry.

The Beastman youth—Bell Cranel—let out roar after roar. His astonishing speed made Hayate and the others standing behind Zafira click their tongues. Although that speed was nothing impressive in their eyes, it was indeed enough to surprise them.

Hayate in particular felt a little uneasy inside, seeing such a battle for the first time.

Zafira should be all right, shouldn't she...? Hayate watched the battle before her, unable to stop herself from thinking so.

Like a chariot, Bell charged forward, swaying his body as he rushed. His feet, clad in metal boots, immediately turned into streaks of light, their kicks sweeping toward Zafira like spinning wind wheels.

In response, silver-white magical halos enveloped Zafira's fists. Her right fist carried the momentum to shatter everything as it smashed directly toward the incoming kicks. The silver-white radiance left behind straight trails of light as it cut through the air, while the immense magic power drew the attention of everyone around them.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!

The instant they collided, shockwaves rolled outward, as though they could fling everything around them away.

"Will Zafira be all right...?" Hayate couldn't help asking Signum and the others beside her.

Though she possessed the template of her future self and was not weak, Hayate had no combat experience.

Signum understood this as well. When she saw the Book of Night Sky in Hayate's hand, even Signum could not help being startled. If her contract had not still been with Chu Chen, she would have almost thought she had changed masters.

To some extent, Signum did feel a little disappointed. Of course, that did not mean Signum had any complaints about Chu Chen.

From the way Chu Chen treated them, Signum and the others could tell that Chu Chen was a good person. At the very least, unlike their former masters, he did not treat them as mere tools.

It could even be said that they were already very happy that Chu Chen allowed them to remain at Hayate's side.

Therefore, Signum did not have any issue with Chu Chen. She merely felt a slight regret that this gentle Hayate was not their master. After all, they had spent much more time by Hayate's side.

Compared to Hayate, they simply knew far too little about their current master.

"Don't worry, Hayate. With Zafira's strength, she won't lose!" Signum said calmly.

"Yeah! Zafira looks super strong!" Alicia said as well.

"There aren't even any opponents for us in this world, are there? These people are ridiculously weak!"

Vita swept a disdainful glance over the growing crowd around them.

They had more or less figured out that they seemed to have landed in someone else's home.

After giving them a rough look, Vita was certain that none of these people could be her opponents.

Not only were they not weak to begin with, but their strength was also tied to their master.

They were somewhat similar to Heroic Spirit Servants, in that their attributes varied according to the magical power supplied by their Master. Chu Chen possessed planet-level magical power, and under such circumstances, the combat strength of the Four Knights had risen like a rocket. Even the Four Knights themselves had been greatly surprised by this.

They had never expected their new master to be this powerful...

What they could not understand, however, was why their master had yet to collect the pages of the Book of Darkness.

"We didn't come here to fight, Vita..." Hayate looked helplessly at Vita beside her.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Vita quickly responded. None of them could refuse Hayate's words.

Among everyone present, Vita was probably the one who felt the deepest regret that Hayate was not her master.

She looked like a child, and her personality really was that of a child too...

At that moment, more and more people gathered around, apparently watching Bell and Zafira's contest as though it were entertainment.

Both were wolfmen, but their fighting styles were entirely different.

One looked extremely violent and savage, while the other mainly focused on defense, occasionally counterattacking and appearing very relaxed.

"Tiona, Tione, what happened? This looks pretty interesting!"

A woman with a crimson ponytail and dressed in men's clothing watched the scene before her with great interest.

She seemed completely unconcerned that someone was fighting in her own home.

The ones the crimson-ponytailed girl addressed were two girls with wheat-colored skin and no trace of gloom on their faces. Other than their waist-length hair, temperament, and certain aspects of their figures, they were almost identical.

"It's Loki... Those people seemed to have appeared in our base out of nowhere. Bell thought they were intruders, so he attacked without a word. Now he's tangled up with that wolfman over there... The two of them seem evenly matched!" Tiona said excitedly as she watched, looking eager to give it a try herself.

"This isn't a deadlock. It's obvious the other side is handling him very easily..." Tione sighed, turning her gaze toward the crimson-ponytailed girl—Loki.

"Should we take them down quickly? Aren't we entering the dungeon today?"

"Wait, wait! Anyone who can fight Bell so effortlessly has to be at least Level 5, right? Someone like that can't possibly be unknown, and they wouldn't gather together to break into our base for no reason!"

Specks of light flashed in Loki's eyes as she looked toward a blonde girl nearby.

She was an extremely slender girl with straight golden hair reaching her waist. Her face was youthful and doll-like, and she radiated an unusual aura. Yet despite that beautiful appearance, she had no expression at all, which was truly a shame.

"Ais, go test them out. This seems pretty interesting..."

"Loki, you just think it's fun, don't you?" Tione couldn't help saying.

"Tione, what's wrong with that? I think these people seem pretty interesting too!"

Tiona watched the group eagerly.

The blonde girl—Ais—nodded lightly. Then she shot toward Hayate and the others like an arrow.

Signum's expression sharpened. Her right hand immediately gripped the hilt of the Flame Demon Sword, and then—

She swung fiercely, unleashing an enormous amount of magic power that turned into a flaming slash and flew toward Ais.

Ais's expression did not change in the slightest. As she swung the slender sword in her hand, faint breezes unexpectedly began to stir, wrapping around the blade. The next moment, the swirling breeze transformed into a fierce strike and collided with the flaming slash before her.

To Ais's surprise, she instead felt an immense force that actually showed signs of blasting her away.

She tapped the ground beneath her feet. The breeze swept past as the slender sword in her hand slashed fiercely, directly cutting apart the attack before her.