"Mom? Is that really you?"
The person emerging from the dust was an elver with long red hair and dull green eyes. She wore nothing other than brown, torn prison rags, her exposed arms, legs and face were covered in scars. While Lisa had been looking forward to this moment for over 10 years, she was at a loss for words.
Lisa remembered her mother as a strong, independent woman with a defiant smile on her face, she was strong, self reliant and larger than life. The woman standing in front of her didn't remind Lisa of her mom, she was hunched slightly over, her eyes had lost most of their light and she looked visibly nervous.
"... H-hey."
Lisa had dreamt about this moment more than she would ever admit, but never like this.
"... Really? 'hey'? is that all you've got? After so long that's all you have?"
A mix of frustration, misplaced anger and joy hit Lisa all at once and overwhelmed her, tears welled up in her eyes as she didn't know what to do or how to act as her mother just continued looking miserable.
"Is- AW! What?"
Right as Lisa was about to start up again, Tom wracked her head without much force as he interrupted his idiotic disciple.
"Go fucking hug her, you depressed fucking brat."
"... Okay."
Following her teacher's order, Lisa awkwardly walked up to her mom who couldn't or wouldn't meet her eyes, before she embraced her mom as the tears really started flowing. Really embracing her mother, Lisa could feel that her mom's body was not a lot more than skin and bones, and her mind wasn't really doing any better than her body.
"A-are you really here?"
Clair had dreamt of this moment for years, and now that it was here she wasn't sure it was even real. Seeing her mother questioning her own senses and mind broke Lisa as her tears started flowing.
"... I'm here mom. P-please don't leave again."
Barely managing to squeeze those words out, Lisa started full on ugly crying together with Clair as the pair held each other in their arms, desperately clinging to each other as they feared letting go would lead to them getting separated again.
(Finally, she's not trying to hide her hurt for once.)
Silently observing the mother daughter duo meet while making sure nothing would interrupt their moment, Tom had a soft smile on his face as he finally saw Lisa completely let down her guard and act her age for once.
After a few touching minutes, both Lisa and Clair were forced to move on as they were still very much in enemy territory and catching up would need to wait until a bit later.
"Mom, this Tom, my teacher and living saint of our merciless lady… Tom, this is my mother, Clair, living saint of our bountiful lady and one of the best mages on the continent."
Introducing her two most important people to each other, Lisa had expected a lot of things to happen, but not silence.
"..."
"..."
While Tom had looked forward to meeting Clair, seeing her poor state and how moumentally she had fucked up the situation somewhat soured that feeling. Sure, on some level Tom knew that this world wasn't used to the kind of tactics his world used, but he felt like Clair had to have realised that the kingdom wasn't going to stick to their original agreement after they locked her up.
(You really couldn't be that naive… Then again, I can relate to the desire of wanting to just fall over and die.)
As much as Tom already knew about Clair before meeting, she had absolutely nothing on Tom. A few minutes ago she wasn't even aware that there was another saint of her most ruthless lady.
(This guy is an experienced killer.)
Ignoring the strange weapon in his hands for the moment, Clair saw the hint of cold bloodlust in Tom's eyes, the kind that didn't show up before the person in question had drenched their soul in blood.
"What's your relation to my daughter?"
Finally breaking the somewhat uncomfortable silence, Clair didn't hide the suspicion dripping from her words.
"... I gave her the strength to reach you."
"So you're the one who brought her here? Into so much danger?"
About to scoff at Clair's accusation, Tom realised being hostile or letting his feelings leak out would be detrimental.
"In danger? if I couldn't protect a single kid from danger do you honestly think I would get to be a saint?"
"..."
Not expecting to be hit back where it hurt, Clair couldn't really offer much of a retort, so she moved on after a moment of silence.
"... Then what are you two doing here? This is hardly friendly territory."
"We came to free you, and deal with what my employer calls a hostile agent. Adam Randall, leader of the suppression unit is from the same place I'm from and working against the wishes of my boss in some way, so he has to go."
When Clair heard that shitstain's name something clicked in her mind; everything suddenly made sense, why he had focused so much on her specifically, why his tactics were so strange and effective, and why he had gained so much influence in such a short time.
"Okay, but I also need my own pound of flesh from him."
With that declaration made, Clair looked around for a bit as her dull green eyes started glowing slightly.
"There he is."
Finally settling her eyes in the direction of the castle, Clair started walking without much care in the world for the enemies still in the area, leading Tom to stop her by placing a hand on her shoulder.
"You're just going to walk into all that?"
"Of course I am, why wouldn't I?"
Seeing confusion in response to her seemingly obvious statement, Clair turned her attention to Lisa before asking.
"He doesn't know what being a living saint entails, does he?"
"Nope, I've tried explaining, but it doesn't really seem to stick."
Hearing that she was dealing with an infant and her own child who both somehow managed to enter the capital, Clair breathed a deep, slow sigh as she ruffled her hair a bit.
"Okay, listen here; we're living saints, we're figuratively and literally what binds and channels our benevolent ladies power into the land, if that power was abruptly cut off, not only this country, but most of this continent would suffer immensely and with striking immediacy."
Explain further about the role she and Tom had as stabilizing agents, Clair ended her speech with a historical example.
"You do at least know about the desert that borders this kingdom to the west right? The reason that land became a wasteland was because a living saint was killed by the nation which lived there about 200 years ago."
The time Clair spoke of was known as the great calamity, and to say the anger of the gods had been immediate and apocalyptic would be an understatement.
"Then how come people have been trying to kill me and Lisa since I arrived in this world?"
"Because of that shitbag's influence, but with the 'seed' in the sky I just killed earlier his influence has all but disappeared, and even that dimwit of a king has to know he can't risk resisting us now. So, let's get going; the sooner he's dealt with, the sooner I can take a bath."
Struck by Clair's pragmatic explanation, Tom realised he hadn't really taken the idea that there were real gods in this world seriously, much less the fact that he was the living saint of one and how that would impact the world he was now a part of.
(Like it or not, I guess I've become more than a simple killing machine.)
"Okay then, but I'm still bringing security for Lisa's sake… Give me a second."
Accessing his neural uplink, Tom called on his last remaining Boarhound which soon arrived, its machine gun turret snapping around as it assessed the area for possible threats.
"What is that… Thing?"
Although she had chosen to ignore Tom's strange weapon for the time being, she couldn't ignore the strange, horse sized machine that seemed to be staring at her.
"It's a boarhound, an autonomous killing machine from my old world, I've instructed it to end anyone getting too close to her."
Seeing the strange machine up close, Clair was forced to admit there was something unique about Tom and his role as a living saint.
"Okay… Then let's get going."
As Clair started walking she began excluding a formless presence, devine mana started forming as a red halo was created above her head, displaying her divine presence for all to see.
"You ingrate! Didn't I tell you to go deal with the intruders or fall on your sword!?"
Expecting to negotiate with the attackers to save his own skin, or congratulate Adam but still fall on his sword, the frazzled look on the young Randall's face told king Oldsted Frederick XI everything he needed to know.
"You don't understand… You dont understand youdontunderstandyoudontunderstand…."
Partly from having been defeated for the first time in actual combat and partly because he had just been cut off from his sponsor when it lost a stabilizer entrenching itself into this dimension, Adam was busy trying to itch his own brain as blood trickled down his head and he continued to ramble.
"Why me why now why me why now why me why this why me why how me how why wh-"
"Enough, cease this petulant act! Now!"
Having seen enough of what he believed to be an elaborate ruse to escape his duty, king Oldsted became even more furious than he already was, and when his degree was ignored he turned to his personal guard.
"Remove this eyesore and pen his head on the nearest spike!"
The soldiers acted immediately on their king's demand, but some power from Adam's sponsor still remained inside his fractured mind.
"Quiet be quiet quietquietquietquietquietquietquietquietquietquietquietquietquiet…. QUIET!"
At his word, the soldiers around Adam stopped moving, but not on their own accord as they felt something slimy latch onto their souls and stop them in their tracks.
"Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy…."
Perhaps Adam had been able to understand how he had lost on some level before his mind was shattered, but now trying to comprehend only led to confusion, frustration and anger with no clear target.
"What are you bumbling morons doing!? End him!"
Seeing his guards make no apparent attempt at carrying out his will, king Oldsted made the mistake of giving Adam's broken mind a clear target.
"You… That's right right right! You did this! It's your fault itsyourfaultitsyourfaultitsyourfault!"
If it hadn't been for the king's ridiculous refusal to just let Adam run everything in his stead things wouldn't have happened this way, if the king hadn't been so busy constantly trying to hamper Adam's influence this wouldn't have happened.
If Adam had only killed the king earlier things wouldn't have gone wrong.
"Better better BETTER!"
With blood still running down his face Adam bloomed an insane smile as his paralysing influence spread all over the audience hall, fixing all inside in place as he freed a nearby knight of his sword.
"BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!"
Not bothering to properly grab his sword, Adam let it drag behind him as he started a steady walk towards regicide.
"W-wait a minute."
Seeing his imminent demise approaching, king Oldsted dropped his veneer of sophistication and panicked. It seemed no matter how much he struggled to move, Oldsted looked destined to die on his throne.
That's when a single shot rang out in the audience hall.
"GAH!-"
As Adam fell to his knees from getting shot in the leg, all eyes turned to the entrance of the audience chamber where a woman with a halo above her head appeared.
"YOU!"
Faced with his imminent mortality, Oldsted was scared, but when he saw her he was terrified.
"You've gotten old, and ugly dear Oldsted. Seems like your soul finally fits its flesh container."
Offering a brief response to the fat, old man in the important chair, Clair turned her attention to the real issue as she started weaving together a spell, gathering an immense amount of divine mana from the land.
"You sure about this?"
Glancing at Tom beside her, Clair finished compressing her spell into a single, bright point.
"Yeah, go."
Affirming as he raised his rifle, Tom felt the world around him slow down as Clair bathed the inside of the audience hall in a warm light, burning away any influence of foreign gods in an instant as the spell's restorative properties healed everyone's mind, soul and body.
"KILL THEM!"
The instant Oldsted was freed he swung into action, commanding his knights to kill everyone as he covered for his embarrassment with misplaced anger.
Hearing their king's word and now free again to act, the elite knights sprung into action to carry out his word.
Only none of them were currently the fastest person in the room.
"TERMINATE ALL SECONDARIES!"
"Roger!"
"With pleasure!"
Ordering Lisa, Clair and the Boarhound behind him to act, Tom squeezed the trigger as he threw propper burst control out the window, letting his M-909X Hog sing as he dragged it over targets with ruthless precision.
Seeing her teacher was on the offensive, Lisa flicked the fire selector on her rifle to semi automatic and took a knee as she started sweeping up his flanks with shots that didn't need a follow-up. The Boarhound also followed the instruction it was given while taking a somewhat defensive stance, but unlike Lisa's trained discipline it plotted burst pattern probability maps on targets before tearing them apart with ruthless automatic fire.
(Fuck they're fast.)
Although she had been very enthusiastic to join in the slaughter of the very people who had tortured her for the better part of a decade, Clair was unable to keep up with the sheer speed and ruthlessly efficient firepower her daughter, Tom and the automaton were putting out.
In the end, all of the knights ending up with shards of red crystals were dead before they even hit.
"HII!"
A little sanity seemed to have remained in the far corners of Adam's mind as he made the correct decision to hit the floor as the shooting started, and when automatic fire finally ceased half a minute later he tried running.
"ARGH!-"
Tried being the opportune word, as the moment Adam started bolting, Tom drew his pistol and placed another bullet right through the healed hole of the last one.
"Nope."
Giving the Boarhound orders through a quick series of hand movements, Tom put his rifle away as he started approaching Adam with a cold smile forming on his lips. With its new orders, the Boarhound immediately locked onto the old fart in the important looking chair, ready to take his legs off if he tried moving.
"ARGH! FUCK!"
"Yeah, sucks to suck, shitface."
Shooting the other leg out from beneath Adam as he tried to hobble away, Tom decided he might as well go all the way and make his target a quadriplegic and shoot him in the shoulders for good measure as a roll of duct tape materialised in his free hand.
"A!-"
"Not interested."
Having walked in a leisurely pace all the way up to Adam who had just managed to turn over onto his back, Tom kicked in his teeth to stop his screaming before holstering his pistol and pulling out an X-98(r) training gas grenade.
"Anything you girls wanna say to this shitstain before he starts decomposing?"
Glancing at Clair and Lisa at his sides, Tom continued to hold Adam in place and stopped him from making too much noise with the heel of his boot that was still planted in Adam's mouth.
"Nothing much."
"Hmm…"
While Lisa didn't really believe in talking to people who were about to die, Clair appeared to at least consider it for a moment, but she settled by 'just' kicking Adam in his defenceless nether regions.
"Okay then."
Waiting a bit for Adam to stop squirming, Tom crouched down a bit closer to Adam's face as he pulled the pin from his gas grenade.
"Time to meet my boss, Adam-"
While he could have completed the job way earlier, Tom figured this was his last chance to get back at the USIE upper brass from his old life, so he made it a bit more personal.
"But first, this is a present from me and all the other members of the USIE civil cooperation bureau, section D19."
Letting the spoon fly off his grenade, Tom removed his heel from Adam's mouth and shoved the gas grenade into the opened hole before rapidly securing it in place with the duct tape he had just summoned.
"I hope you like how it burns."
Not bothering to watch how Adam struggled to remove the grenade that was releasing superheated gas right down his throat, Tom felt he had helped avenge at least some of Adam's countless victims.
OBJECTIVE_STACK_PRIMARY_UPDATED.
FIX_THE_WORLD.
STATUS:_0.190000001143%_COMPLETE.
ELIMINATE_HOSTILE_AGENT.
OBJECTIVE_COMPLETE.
REWARD(S)_PENDING.
NO_SECONDARY_OBJECTIVE(S)_IN_STACK.
END_OF_REPORT.