Duke Ruvyn was a decent enough fellow, but I didn’t care too much about his assessment on whether or not we should remain. Instead, the opinions of Sir Kalman and Malaliel were more important.

I also had to consider Lyklor, our aged elven beastmaster companion. He was quite helpful, providing training for Zeb and helping us scout out the location of the enemy. Without him and Flower, we might have ended up in some truly perilous situations.

“Is there anything else we can do to aid the Order of the Lion?” I asked.

Sir Kalman shook his head. “Unless you can get some of those powered people here, we have more than enough people with classes. I don’t expect you to try to assault a main city to close off another portal, either.” Presumably, he was also referencing a different portal I had mentioned. It might be fine that Entheas had a permanent portal to one of the outer planes, but it was suspicious at the very least.

Malaliel added her part next. “Extra cannot expect more from you than we have already received. One issue has been resolved, at least, and the rest is out of bounds of what can be achieved with a single large squad.”

“We do appreciate your assistance,” Sir Kalman said. “Your knowledge of proper tactics to deal with these laser weapons has made them much more tolerable. Now the attackers are on the back foot. But you should get your people back to where they belong.”

I nodded. Having ended up as squad leader, the risks the Portal Squad had been placed in were greater than I would have liked. On Earth, their powers were rare. Here, there were so many people who had been using the same powers for longer. Even with incomplete classes that only used points and leveling, that was a difficult thing to overcome. Only the fact that we had access to excellent healers had kept them from permanent harm- that and Francois’ excellent defenses that allowed them to be mobile but well protected.

Truth be told, if all our battles had relied only on local powers we likely would have struggled greatly. The dark elves relying on their shiny new lasers helped give us the necessary edge.

“I enjoyed working with you,” Lyklor said. “It is interesting to see what people can do with training.”

I nodded. “It really feels like I was dealing with something incomplete for the first twenty-five years of my life. I’m still surprised that you haven’t come across… the necessary circumstances.”

“One does not so easily become an old elf if they poke their nose where it does not belong.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You seem exactly like the type who could make good use of their nose. But I’ll take your word for it. Oh, I might want to contact you later. Would you be willing to respond to Sending?”

“I doubt I have any answers to your questions,” the old elf said. “Unless you’re asking about raising squirrels.”

“Oh! I want to know about that!” Zeb bounced into view. “Tell me about raising squirrels! And how to get one. They keep running away.”

“You need to be patient,” Lyklor said. “And I would suggest trying to get a local squirrel. You’re already bringing one denizen from this world that isn’t a native of your realm.”

I nodded. “Yeah, we don’t have dire bats at all. Plenty of squirrels, though.”

“I wasn’t allowed to go around outside until just recently,” Zeb said. “But I can now! I even got to go on a mission. So you can take me to find squirrels, right?”

“Absolutely,” I said. “Though we’ll have to look into local laws and stuff.” I was pretty sure bonded companions bypassed a lot of rules, and it wasn’t like Zeb was going to have more difficulty getting a squirrel approved than a rust mole. Or a dire bat. One of those wasn’t even native to the solar system. Funnily enough though, it was just the big bat.

-----

“Will this be where we depart, great mage Turlough?” Momo asked.

“Uh, pretty much yeah,” I said. “Also I’m just Turlough. Mage is a code name and great isn’t part of any of that.”

“You deserve a title of honor for your accomplishments,” Momo said.

“Eh. Titles are kinda…” I shrugged. “Not for me. Anyway, you should focus on calling me just one thing. I don’t care about my secret identity for myself, but keeping up some level of anonymity for those around me is important.”

“Of course,” Momo agreed. “The fact that you do not transform simply threw me off.”

“Well, I usually have different clothes. But we’re alway near conflict here,” I said, gesturing around me. You ready Midnight?” I asked.

“Indeed. We will be focusing on their energy signatures to form the Gate, correct?”

“Exactly,” I said. “We’ll do a two-thirds split. Maximum power just in case the dimension is stubborn.”

“Understood,” he said.

We were preparing to make the portals in a nice open courtyard- with some local elves watching, just in case something went wrong. People were so picky about interdimensional portals. I thought it was especially silly since they had a way more risky one all the time. Though probably most of them didn’t know about it.

“Oh. Are you going back like that?” I asked Momo. “Shouldn’t you be Strife if you’re going to come through a magic portal?”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“I was hoping you could place it in an alleyway?” she tilted her head.

“I mean, I can certainly try. But we’re not at the same place where your original portal was, so I have to make a new one. What about Eglantine? Is it okay to have her just wandering around?”

“Nobody can see me if they don’t have a connection to magic,” Eglantine commented. “Unless I wish it.” She looked around. “It is odd to be in a world where everyone has some access to magic.”

“Alright, seems like we’re set. One Gate coming up. It will probably last about a minute, but wait until I give you the go ahead before trying to go through.”

I concentrated on the pair, drawing on their natural connection to home. They had a distinctive energy signature that very much helped. I could feel the sparkles. A swirling portal expanded outward, revealing an alleyway in a shining city. Running around in said city were sparkling motes without form.

“... Is this it?” I asked. “The portal is stable.”

Momo seemed uncertain, but Eglantine spoke up. “This is actually my homeworld, Humurun.”

“I don’t suppose it’s possible to go in there and just… magic yourselves back to Japan?”

“It would be… quite difficult,” Eglantine said.

“Alright,” I said. “Stand back, I’m going to let it close.”

That part was easy, as I just had to stop concentrating. I could have tried to regain mana as I closed it, but the net expenditure might not be in my favor. It had been marginal when I’d first learned Alter Portal, but maybe it would be better here for my own. But I wasn’t interested in experimenting at this exact moment.

“Next attempt,” I said. “We’ll focus more on Momo.”

It was too bad that her connection was less powerful, but I supposed ending up on the right planet was important. An alleyway in a big city in Japan. Ah, I forgot to ask if she lived in Tokyo or somewhere else. Would there even be one in that dimension, or would they have other cities?

A city came into view as the portal expanded, complete with cars and taxis.

“Behold!” I waved my arm. “Hmm. Is this Manhattan?”

“... It’s certainly not my Japan,” Momo said cautiously. “It… might be in my world. But I didn’t exactly bring a passport. I know this is a significant expenditure, great mage, but could you make a further attempt?”

“No problem,” I said. I declined to inform her at the time that I could do this multiple times per day. Well, actually barely more than once here. The regeneration was kinda awful in Entheas. And by awful I meant the rate I had been told was standard. New Bay was like twice as much. Oh, I should be looking for a place with more magic. Eglantine said their Japan had over a thousand magical girls.

The third Gate.

“... San Francisco is closer,” Momo admitted. “But still, um…”

“Wrong?” I asked. “I get it.” I stepped closer to the portal, not to go through but to feel it. Ambient mana… funnily enough, higher than this world. Again. But not at the current levels of New Bay, indicating I was probably at least getting the right world.

I let that final Gate fade away.

“Now we have a bit of a problem,” I said.

“Is it… impossible?” Momo asked, worriedly.

“No way,” I shook my head. “But I’d be more effective with a picture. You… don’t happen to have a phone on you, do you?”

Momo blinked. “I do but… my battery is dead.”

“We can probably deal with that at the same time as the real problem. I was planning to return the rest of us home today. And I can only cast one more Gate. So it would actually be more efficient if you stop by our world with us, where we can find a way to recharge your device and I can recover mana more quickly.” Also, that way I could be more certain I wasn’t making a Gate to our Japan, when I finally got it right.

“We will gladly accept your request,” Eglantine said. “I understand how difficult dimensional travel is, and we would not wish to keep you from your home.”

It wasn’t really that difficult. I got to the right dimension every time, probably. But they didn’t seem to have anyone like Extra that would bring my portal to a convenient place.

We said our official goodbyes to the Duke. There were some flowery words and stuff, but I wasn’t really listening. Mostly, it sounded like he was glad that the enemy had fewer lasers. And maybe a bit disappointed to find out that they ran out of energy so his people couldn’t just use what they caught forever.

I didn’t have anything against the guy unless he was part of the big conspiracy, but I didn’t know so I kept him in the ‘seems decent’ category.

Then I took us all back to New Bay- all of those who belonged, of course. Only the Portal Squad was native to the planet, but that didn’t mean the rest of us didn’t call it home. Oh, aside from the magical girl and her alien companion who belonged on a different Earth.

We were greeted by the portal halls of Extra’s New Bay Branch. It was nice to be somewhere familiar again. And somewhere with better mana regeneration, because frankly those elf lands sucked. The ancient plane was like five times better. They should have all stayed there with the big jungle monsters.

As we stepped through, Momo locked her eyes on something. “Oh no! It’s one of them!”

She began to shine with light, her hair growing longer and her clothes transforming. But frankly, the actual magic had to be making it so that people didn’t just figure out her mundane identity. Though she probably wasn’t supposed to transform in front of people normally.

“The taint of the Scouring will not make a foothold in this world!” Strife stood imperiously. Around her, quills began to form in the air, sparkling with rainbow colors.

I grabbed the back of her uniform and yanked her backwards. “No. Bad Strife.”

She tumbled to the ground, her magic falling apart. “But-”

“That’s Kyle. He’s supposed to be here.” I waved. “Hey (-----), how’s (--------) doing?”

“I don’t think anything changed since you would have last seen him,” Kyle shrugged, his whole body flowing upward. “She’s new, I take it?”

“Yeah, she’s from some other dimension with some sort of alien monsters called the Scouring. Probably just a mistaken identity.”

“You… you can speak with it?” Strife asked from where she was, half sitting on the floor.

“I can speak with anything that speaks,” I replied. “Anyway, no transforming and attacking people here unless Malaliel, Midnight, or myself say they’re bad.”

Eglantine peeked around Strife. “This… Kyle… has none of the taint the Scouring carry with them,” she said. “And while the form is as alien as any of the Scouring… I don’t recognize that particular configuration.”

“See? Told you. He’s fine. Now turn back into your nice form.”

Strife complied, and then we had Momo again. I wondered if they might actually be from her dimension, though. All I knew is they were refugees. Maybe they were being oppressed by magical girls? It was hard to tell, as Kyle only looked the standard level of surprised when someone magically transforms in front of them.