"Jin Toujou, right?", I asked with a smirk, 'If Ciri is in this world, she has to be training with the Hero Clan. No way in hell would the Demons or Deities of this world would help her, she would become too big of a threat if she gained full control of her power.'
Dropping his phone, Jin leaped backward and drew his blade in a single, fluid motion. The moment one of his feet touched the ground, he launched himself forward unleashing a powerful, horizontal slash at me. Grabbing the spine of his blade with my thumb and pinky fingers, I stopped him mid-swing. Attempting to yank his blade free, he found that it would not budge an inch.
Realizing that he could not break it free, Jin released his blade and backpedaled a few feet. Wearing a stupid grin on his face, he appeared to really enjoy this encounter. Since there were only a few people who could match Jin's strength and power, I was probably the first real threat he had met in a long time.
"Interesting, you are much stronger than you look.", Jin admitted as he observed me closely, "I do not recognize your face from anywhere, have we met somewhere before?"
"No, we have never had the pleasure of meeting before today.", I chuckled, "While you do not know me, I know a lot about you. It is a pleasure to meet a man who not only married the Demon King's little sister but also the number two deity in Heaven. You have some seriously good luck my man, well done."
Knowing that mentioning his wives would provoke him, I wanted to see how he would react. For all I knew this was an alternate timeline from the one I remembered. Seeing his enjoyment disappear immediately, his expression became quite tense as he created a blade out of pure magic.
"Who told you that, and what faction are you with?", he asked lowering his stance, "Depending on your answer, I will not hesitate to fight you to the death."
"It seems like this may be the main timeline then, that is a relief.", I stated tossing his sword back to him, "I am not from any of the factions here, I am a World Traveller like another young woman staying here. My information suggests that she may be staying in your Hero Village currently, can you confirm that for me?"
Projecting a holographic image of Ciri for him to see, he let out a sigh as he sheathed his blade. Telling me to lead with that information first, Jin was none too happy about bringing his family into this discussion.
"Anyways, yes I have seen her at the Hero Village.", Jin acknowledged as he relaxed a bit, "I was the first person she ran into when she arrived on this world. She stumbled through a portal and passed out on me before I could ask her anything. When she came too, she told us she was being chased by a group of Elves and that she needed to keep moving. That said when she saw some of our new generation heroes training, she asked to take part as she thought she could learn a lot from us."
"And you just accepted her story at face value? I thought your group would have been far more suspicious of a random girl showing up out of nowhere.", I remarked.
"The Elder Councilmen have decades of experience reading people's intentions. They concluded that she could be trusted and that her situation was quite dire.", Jin said with a shrug, "She has not told us much about the group she is running from though, just that they are a bunch of dangerous people. Can you give us a bit more to go on?"
Nodding my head, I told him all about the Wild Hunt and what they had been up to as of late. Getting him up to speed on recent events, his expression soured as he learned about the Wave Device that they had stolen. Fearing that the weapon could be used in their world, he picked his phone back up and began talking to his handler.
"Sorry about that, I found the source of the incursion here. Another World Traveller like Ciri showed up looking for her.", Jin told them, "Please get the Village Elders together immediately, the situation has changed drastically."
"Is he with the group Ciri mentioned to us?", the Handler asked.
"No, he appears to be a potential ally of hers. The problem is the enemy she told us about is far more deadly than we were led to believe.", Jin replied, "I got more information on them…they are really bad news."
"Understood, please wait a moment while I conference them in."
Standing there in silence for a few minutes, one by one the Elders of the Hero Village joined the call. Giving them a few moments to get settled, I heard a familiar voice join the call so I began triangulating their location with several of my Quirks. Once everyone was settled, Jin gave them the rundown I had given him. When he finished, Ciri was the first one to speak up.
"Wait!? Meliodas and Zeldris's world is gone!?", Ciri shrieked, "When did this happen!?"
"It happened within the last year Ciri, have you not gone back to visit any of the worlds you have passed through?", I asked her, "The Wild Hunt has systematically been wiping worlds out one by one after stealing anything of interest they have. Somehow they acquired Soul Steal Magic, and have been using it to kill deities left and right. What world have you visited that had that magic?"
"I…I do not know, there have been so many worlds I have passed through trying to escape Eredin and his men.", Ciri said as she began to panic, "What have I done!? All of those people are dead because of me!"
"Ciri, calm down.", I told her trying to get her to focus on the matter at hand, "For the time being, I need to get you off this world and back to mine so we can plan our next move. With your help, I can bring Triss, Yennefer, and Geralt in to assist with planning our counter-offensive against Eredin. The longer we wait to counter-attack, the more worlds are going to be destroyed by the Wild Hunt."
"Wait a moment…", one of the Elders spoke up, "How can we be certain you are telling the truth? You could be one of their lackeys trying to trick her into following you into a trap."
Realizing that they were playing hardball, as they did not want to lose Ciri's power, I decided to stop diplomacy with them. These were the very same people who were willing to seal Basara and his sword for being unable to control his overwhelming power. He was a mere child when the accident happened, but they were willing to treat him the same as a hardened criminal. Knowing that they would try to weaponize Ciri against the Demon King's forces, I did not want her to potentially be led down the wrong path. Locking on to the Hero Village's coordinates, I forcibly teleported Jin and me to the village.
—Hero Village—
Arriving right before the Elders and Ciri, I stared right at the one who suggested such a ridiculous idea. I had clearly named three individuals Ciri knew very well, and had even named people she had met on her travels up to this point. Clearly, Ciri could have gone back and seen for herself that I was not lying, but he did not want her to do that.
"Do I look like I am trying to get her enslaved to you?", I asked the man looking him dead in the eyes, "Unlike you scumbags, I do not want to use Ciri as a weapon."
"What was that!?', he said as he began to sweat under my gaze.
"I am not a fool, you want her to stay here so she can help you destroy the Devils right? You do understand that a group of genocidal Elves is after Ciri, and will freeze your world over if they realize she is here? None of you have the power to stop the White Frost nor do you know how to stop a Wave, both of those things I am capable of doing.", I lectured him, "We either work to prevent them from coming here, or I eliminate all of you and find sensible people who will. The choice is yours."
"Do you realize who we are!?", one of the older Elders shouted as he stood up from his seat, "We are-"
Lifting my right hand, I vaporized him with hot plasma. Watching the old man disappear, the other Elders immediately shut up as they realized I was not joking around.
"Please wait a moment, you do not need to kill anyone else here.", Ciri pleaded as she got up with her hands raised.
"Ciri, I am not with the Wild Hunt damn it.", I groaned, "Put your hands down, you are not under arrest or being taken hostage. These morons need to get their heads out of their ass, times of changed and they need to change with them. They want to use you to eliminate the Devils, the trouble is that not all of them are threats anymore. Not only that, if you use your magic here it will point the Wild Hunt in this direction."
"Is that true?!", Ciri asked looking to the Elders.
"That…that is not completely true.", one of the men spoke up fearing he would be the next to die, "We need every advantage we can get over the Devils, you must understand that they are a terrible group of people! If they decided to attack humanity again, we would be the only forces humanity has to hold them back."
Turning to me, Ciri asked how likely it was that they would come here seeking war again. Shaking my head, I told her that the chances were very slim as the Devils had ongoing power struggles of their own. With the Demon King dead many of his subordinates had broken up into their own factions causing chaos down there.
"The only way a war would start is if they united under one rule again, and humanity or the deities attacked first. While there are a few war hawks that would start a war among them, the most likely Demon King candidate has no interest in another war. He would rather focus on the betterment of his people and rebuilding over another war.", I advised her, "That said, your presence here could have significantly altered the timeline. I know you were never taught this, but it is important to minimize the impact you have on any world you visit. Even the smallest actions you take can have major ramifications for the future of the world."
"Yeah…I know, I found that out the hard way.", she admitted with a downcast look, "If I have altered the timeline here, can you help me fix it? You appear to be very strong, together we could restore things to how they should have been."
"...if you agree to come back with me, and stay put for the time being I will agree to your terms.", I offered, "My biggest concern is stopping more worlds from being looted and frozen over. As long as that is achieved, helping you fix whatever you broke here is insignificant."
Shaking my hand, Ciri agreed to my request and left to pack her few personal effects.