Songs in the Void: A Multiversal Score

ICDS Universe, Earth, United States of America, Page, Arizona. 

The next day, after having breakfast in their hotel that Alfonzo made, the group consisting of Tatsuo, Violet, James, Alfonzo, Elicia, Aletia, Shea, Tio, Rias, Sona, and Scáthach were making their way towards the Wyvern Nest, all dressed in their combat attire. Along the way, they ran across Shin, who was still wearing his plate armor and covered in what appeared to be wyvern blood. 

"Yo, T.K., did you just finish after last night?" Tatsuo asked while waving at Shin, who seemed to be returning to his lodgings. "Or did you go back and come back out again at some point??" 

"Oh, I just got finished." Shin replied. "And I gotta say, I feel a lot better after rampaging for a while. "I finally got rid of all that negative energy after talking to that Ciara girl." 

"Well, just remember, that little bitch has the ability to predict Event Raids." Tatsuo said with a nod, trying to remind Shin that Ciara could not be trusted. 

Shin, on the other hand, only blinked his eyes several times inside his helmet. 

"I guess that could be useful." Shin said. "Maybe she's not as bad as I thought." 

Everyone in Tatsuo's group, even Shea, who was the slowest on the uptake in situations like this, looked at Shin as if he were a little slow. They then sighed in unison and continued to walk towards the Wyvern Nest. 

"If he doesn't get it, he doesn't get it." Alfonzo said with a grin. "He can deal with the consequences himself." 

"Alfonzo's right." James said. "Anyway, let's go. We need to check the value of those wyverns we killed. The U.S. Government should have stored them away for us, right?"" 

"Yeah." Tatsuo replied. "I wanna see if I can make anything out of them, anyway." 

"Ooh! Do you think you could let me try and make some stuff with them, too?" Elicia asked curiously. "I mean, there are wyverns in Earth Land, but they're not worth the trouble to get to. So, I've never used their leather to make anything before." 

"Does that mean you won't be hunting today, Lici?" Alfonzo asked curiously. 

"If the material is any good, probably not." Elicia replied. "But on the upside, by the time you all get back, you'll have new combat gear. Wel, for those who don't use metal armor, anyway." 

"Then, I guess that means all of us, right?" Rias asked with a smile. "Either way, I'll never turn down new clothes." 

"They probably won't be better than the Protean Gear, though." James said off-handedly. "I mean, They were made from Grendel's remains, remember?" 

"And?" Rias asked while tilting her head cutely. "Does that stop them from being new clothes?" 

"*Sniff* A girl after my own heart." Elicia said while throwing an arm over Rias shoulder and wiping away a fake tear with her other hand. "I knew we would get along just fine." 

Meanwhile, Sona, after hearing Rias completely disregard function when it comes to new gear, only adjusted her glasses while shaking her head in second-hand embarrassment. Even though she was thinking the same as her best friend. Especially since only James' tow peerages had Protean Gear, a shape-shifting set of equipment that could take on any style of clothing the wearer wanted with a little bit of magic or demonic power. 

"I could probably make your Protean Gear, or whatever you called it, even better, though." Tatsuo said casually. "I mean, with a little [Mana Crafting], anything is possible, right?" 

Hearing that, James, Alfonzo's, Elicia's, and Scáthach's eyes lit up. While James, Alfonzo, and Elicia got excited because they all knew what [Mana Crafting] was, Scáthach's eyes lit up because this was a form of crafting she had never heard of. Though, she could guess what it was, at least partially, based on the name. 

"Hey, Tatsuo, you'll teach me how to do that, right?" Alfonzo asked while throwing an arm over Tatsuo's shoulders. 

"Me, too! Me, too!" Elicia said while raising the arm that was not over Rias' shoulder into the air. 

"*Sigh* It kinda makes me wish I had a crafting job." James said in a disappointed tone. "Then, I would have a way to use it, too. But if you could [Mana Craft] on Sixth Sense and Carnage, I'd appreciate it." 

"I'll see what I can do." Tatsuo replied. "Anyway, we'll need to see how many mana stones those wyverns we killed have." 

With that, the group, some excited and some curious, continued towards the Wyvern Nest. When they arrived, they met a Caucasian man who seemed to be waiting for them. 

"Good morning, Void and his companions." The man said when Tatsuo and his group were within speaking range. "You can call me John Smith. And I'm the Awakened in charge of monitoring the Wyvern Nest until it has been cleared." 

"Good morning." Tatsuo replied with a nod. "So, we saw that your people were picking up our kills last night. You didn't take any of them for yourselves, did you?" 

"No, sir." John replied while shaking his head. "We were hoping you wouldn't mind selling some of them, though. The U.S. government is willing to pay quite a sum for those in good condition. And as far as we could see, yours were in the best condition we've ever seen. Even better than Thunder Knight's." 

"Hmph! Of course, they were." James replied in an annoyed tone. "He's good, but he's nowhere near as strong as we are." 

Hearing that, John turned his attention to James with an inquiring expression on his face. 

"Pardon me, sir, but who might you be?" John asked politely. "Might I know what I should call you?" 

Despite knowing that James was quite strong, John had never heard of an Awakened like him. So, he found it hard to believe that he could be so strong, yet completely unknown. 

"You can call me Tyrant." James replied. "And that's all you need to know." 

"Understood." John replied, clearly not wanting to piss off someone who was at least SS-Rank, and probably stronger than that. 

"Anyway, show us to the corpses." Tatsuo said while grinning at James show of authority. "We'll check them out and take the ones we want. Then, we'll let you guys buy what's left." 

"Yes, sir." John replied before turning around and making his way towards the wyverns that had been hunted. 

Along the way, there were thousands of wyvern corpses piled up into small piles. However, most of them were in pretty tattered states. Not long later, however, they came across a couple of much larger piles of wyvern corpses, one bigger than the other. 

These last two piles were quite different in comparison to the others. And the reason for that was simple, they were all in excellent condition, the smaller pile slightly better than the larger. Because while there were more wyverns in the larger pile, most of their heads had clearly been exploded. However, the ones in the smaller pile either had their heads lying next to them, or a small hole in their heads from an attack that killed them instantly and without excess damage. 

"The smaller of these two piles are yours." John said with an impressed glint in his eyes. 

"*Whistle* You guys did a lot of damage in such a short time." Alfonzo said while looking around at the wyvern corpses. 

"Well, they aren't really that strong." James replied with a shrug. "If you gave us a week, we could probably wipe them all out." 

"But if we did that, I'm sure there would be some discontent hunters." Scáthach added. "Because despite this bang for the good of the people, human greed d always rears its ugly head." 

"And that's pretty bad coming from someone like us." Sona said while shaking her head. 

"Yeah." Rias said. "But humans can be the most brutal of all species." 

While everyone found the three Devil women's conversation entertaining and ironic, John Smith only looked on in confusion, having no idea that Rias, Sona, and Scáthach were not human. 

On a side note, Shea was wearing an artifact from the Floor Shop that hid her non-human features. And that is why she was not drawing more attention. 

"Anyway, we're offering 60,000 USD for corpses in such good condition. "And you have thirty-four of them here. We're willing to offer an additional $60,000 for any mana stones you're willing to sell, as well." 

"Yeah, we won't be selling any of those." Tatsuo replied without hesitation. "As for the corpses, we'll take a look at them and let you know which ones we don't want." 

"Understood." John replied, a little disappointed that he would be unable to secure any extra mana stones for his country. "Then, I'll be here when you're ready to perform the transaction." 

With that, Tatsuo, Alfonzo, and Elicia went around inspecting the corpses that Tatsuo and James killed the night before. First, Tatsuo went around and collected all the mana stones, a total of twenty-one, and put them in his [Inventory]. Then, he helped Alfonzo and Elicia examine the corpses with the best crafting materials, which were also shifted into Tatsuo's [Inventory]. 

Meanwhile, everyone else waited for the trio to finish while engaging in light conversation. John, on the other hand, was taken aback that Tatsuo, like the rumors of the Flame Which, had the ability to store things with magic. 

"Alright, we're done." Tatsuo said while approaching John, who was still slightly in a daze at what he saw. "You can have these twenty-nine. We don't need them." 

"Understood." John replied, snapping out of his daze. "That will come to $1,740,000. And are you sure you don't want to sell any of those---" 

"Hmm... Almost ¥260,000,000." Tatsuo said, not giving John the chance to ask his question. "Not bad for only about an hour of work. What do you think, James?" 

"Yeah, not bad at all." James replied with a smile. "Guardian Maiden will be a rich lady by the time we're done here, won't she?" 

"Be quiet, Tyrant-San." Violet replied with her cheeks turning slightly red. 

"Anyway, let's go." Elicia said with a happy smile. "I've got clothes to make." 

Elicia then turned to Alfonzo with puppy dog eyes. 

"Fonzie, will you help me separate the parts?" Elicia asked while blinking her eyes innocently. She then turned to Tatsuo and did the same, though it was much less effective. "And Void, could you come with us to bring them back?" 

"*Sigh* Fine." Alfonzo said while shaking his head. "I know better than to get between you and your clothes." 

"Whatever." Tatsuo replied. "It's not like these things are a challenge, anyway. I just wanna make sure we don't miss any mana stones." 

With that, Tatsuo, Alfonzo, and Elicia left the Wyvern Nest and returned to the hotel. Then, Tatsuo dropped all the wyvern corpses on the backyard of the hotel where they were staying. He and Alfonzo then got to butchering them to make the job faster. Then, after working for about an hour, Tatsuo put the wyvern parts back in his inventory, leaving one wyvern hide for Elicia before he and Alfonzo returned to the Wyvern Nest while Elicia started processing the leather. 

"Oh, yeah, Lici." Tatsuo said just before leavign Elicia to work. "IT shouldn't matter if you take care of cutting all the leather, but don't start actually putting the outfits together until we get back, okay?"

As he said that, Tatsuo pulled out another wyvern hide so that Elicia would be able to stay busy for as long as possible.

"Why?" Elicia sked while tilting her head in confusion.

"Part of the [Mana Crafting] process is having the mana stones near you when you work. Actually, never mind, here. Take a few and just sit them next to you whhile you work."

Tatsuo then took out eleven mana stones and gave them to Elicia.

"That should be enough for you to make one for each of us." Tatsuo said. "I'll do the rest when I get back."

"Okay." Elicia replied, vaguely remembering a step int ehprocess like Tatsuo just described.

Meanwhile, around the time Tatsuo, Alfonzo, And Elicia headed back to the hotel, James led the others toward the Wyvern Nest. 

"So, how are we gonna fight those things in the air, Tyrant-San?" Violet asked curiously. "Are we going to rent a helicopter like we talked about last night?" 

"We do indeed offer those services here." John Smith said, inserting himself into the conversation. "And considering how many wyvern corpses you just sold to us, we can do it for free." 

"Nah." James replied. "Actually, now that I think about it, there's no need to." 

"What do you mean?" Sona asked while adjusting her glasses again. 

"I think Tio and I can take care of getting them to come to the ground for us." James replied with a smile. "You remember what happened last night, right, Tio?" 

"Ah! Yes." Tio replied with a nod. "According to Master Scáthach, they should be attracted to us." 

"Indeed." Scáthach replied with a nod of her own. "The wyverns should not be able to resist. Of course, that should also mean that all their attention would be on you and my disciple. And that would make things easier for everyone else." 

Hearing Scáthach's explanation, John Smith looked at her strangely. 

'To think she would call herself Scáthach.' John thought to himself. 'I mean, that's a pretty lofty title to live up to, right?' 

As it turned out, John Smith was quite interested in Celtic mythology. So, him knowing the name Scáthach, or what it represented, was not strange. However, it would more than likely be a sight to see if he ever found out that Scáthach was the real thing, just from a different reality. 

"Well, as long as we don't have to go up in one of those helicopters." Rias said while flicking some of her hair over her shoulder. "I really don't wanna be fighting in one of those metal death traps." 

"Is there anyone who absolutely wants to go up in a chopper?" James asked curiously. 

In response, Violet, Aletia, Shea, and Tio all shook their heads. Like Rias, they could all tell just how dangerous it could be to be shot down in one of the helicopters they could see flying around. 

"Very well." John Smith said as the group reached the edge of the canyon. "Then, I'll leave you to your hunting. I wish you luck." 

With that, John nodded his head before leaving. Meanwhile, Violet, James, Aletia, Shea, Tio, Rias, Sona, and Scáthach made their way down into the canyon. They then stopped when they reached the center. 

"Alright, Tio, just let your draconic aura run wild." James said as he turned to look at Tio. "That should be enough to attract them for miles. I mean, they were attracted last night because Tatsuo let his go out of control for just that little bit, after all." 

"Understood." Tio replied. "Though, I'd rather be taking orders from Tatsuo. *Pant* *Pant* He should then punish me for doing something wrong. Mmm~! The way he would ravage my body. *Pant* *Pant* Oh! Master, where are you? This slave needs your firm hand." 

Having already seen worse from Tio, Violet, Aletia, and shea simply took a few steps away from the masochistic dragonman. Meanwhile, Rias and Sona were amazed to see someone who was on par with Ayame, the bespectacled, silver-haired former monkey Yōkai of James' first peerage. 

"Do dragons just attract World-Level masochists?" Rias asked in a somewhat interested, but mostly disgusted, tone. 

"If the topic weren't so off-putting, it might be worth studying." Sona replied while taking some distance from the panting mess of a dragonman. "But I think that would be better left for someone like Lord Beelzebub, who only really cares about science." 

*Clang!* 

"Enough fooling around." Scáthach reprimanded while slamming the butt of her spear into the canyon floor. "You may get lost in your delusions after we've done what we've come here for. It looks like that is something I'll have to train out of you when we finally get to training." 

Immediately, Tio's breathing evened out when she heard Scáthach's words. The wet patch on her panties even somehow dried up, though, she had no time to ponder on how that was possible. Instead, she was too busy shuddering in the fear of losing her life during Scáthach's promised training sessions. 

Deciding it would be better for her mental health, Tio did not think about that much longer. Instead, she began letting her draconic aura leak, as if she were about to change into her dragon form. However, she did not cast the spell that would trigger the transformation. 

Meanwhile, James, after seeing how quickly Tio straightened out her behavior, could not help but chuckle. Even so, he also released his draconic aura, matching Tio's output. Not long later, the sound of wings flapping from overhead could be heard. 

"They're coming." Rias said as she raised a hand in the direction of an incoming flock of wyverns. 

"Just make sure not to destroy the bodies too much, Rias." Sona said. "Remember, all this money is going to Sumire." 

"I know." Rias replied in an annoyed tone. "You act like I haven't been training my control forever." 

"If a little more than a year is the same as forever to you." Sona replied as she, too, raised a hand towards some incoming wyverns. "Just don't lose control. [Pressure Cutter]." 

In the next instant, a blue magic circle appeared in front of Sona's outstretched hand. Then, in the center of the circle, a small orb of water was materialized. However, it was so dense that anyone who saw it would be amazed at how quickly it was formed. 

A moment later, a thin stream of water was fired from the orb. Then, that stream of water quickly pierced through the lower jaw of a wyvern, through its mouth, and out the back of its head with little resistance. 

*Boom!* 

A moment later, the sound of that particular wyvern's body falling to the ground could be heard. 

"Hey! First Blood was supposed to be mine.!" Rias complained as she balled the thumb, middle, ring, and pinky fingers of her outstretched hand. "[Destruction Beam]." 

Like Sona, Rias also fired a thin stream from her outstretched hand. However, instead of water, it was an application of what the Underworld in her universe refer to as the [Power of Destruction], which can destroy anything it comes in contact with on a sub-atomic level, provided the target does not have the magic, demonic, holy, divine, or whatever power necessary to defend against the user's own demonic power in the attack. 

As for the wyvern Rias targeted, just like with Sona, it fell from the sky when a fingertip sized hole was punched through its head. 

While that happened, the skies were filled with more and more wyverns, scaring the people on the ground to no end. Yet, the group of world travelers did not seem to be bothered in the slightest. 

"Rah~~~~~!" Shea shouted as she swung her hammer, unlocking the mechanism that released its head from the shaft. 

A moment later, the chain connecting the two parts of Shea's hammer was wrapped around the neck of a low flying wyvern. Shea then pulled on it with all her might once she felt it was secure. 

*Crack!* 

*Boom!* 

In the next instant, thanks to Shea's pull, the sound of the wyvern's neck breaking could be heard from all around. On top of that, thanks to her insane strength, the wyvern slammed into the ground, making the area shake slightly. 

The next to act was Aletia, who like Rias and Sona, raised her little hand towards a group of wyverns. A moment later, a dozen or so long ice needles were manifested around her outstretched arm. 

"[Glacial Sleet]." Aletia chanted monotonously. 

With Aletia's chant, all the ice projectiles were fired simultaneously, with two needles fired at each wyvern. And thanks to her exquisite control, Aletia managed to kill each wyvern by impaling their brains through their eyes. On top of that, so to not lose any of the blood, her spell also froze over the injuries. She had no idea if Tatsuo would be able to make anything with their blood, after all. 

Out of those fighting the wyverns, namely, Violet, Aletia, shea, Rias, and Sona, Violet was the most active when fighting. Thanks to the skills she learned from the Kickmaster Rabbits in the Arifureta Universe, she was not stuck fighting on the ground. Instead, she jumped through the air as if she was compressing the air beneath her into foot holds. Then, with accurate spear thrust and powerful shield bashes, she devastated the wyverns who had not been brought down by the others. 

Meanwhile, James, Tio, and Scáthach stayed on standby, just in case there was an unforeseen situation that required their assistance. At the same time, James and Tio continued to release their draconic aura to attract more wyverns. 

About an hour later, Tatsuo and James returned from butchering the wyvern corpses they took with them. And without delay, they also jumped into the fray. While Tatsuo [Blinked] around piercing wyvern heads and cutting throats, Alfonzo zipped around cloaked in arcs of violet electricity using all sorts of self-made, metal weapons to dispatch the flying wyverns. 

And things continued in that manner until they stopped for dinner. At some point, Shin, Hwaya, ye-Eun, and Palludia joined them. And they were completely in awe at just how much damage Tatsuo and his group were capable of inflicting. However, if they had only known that more than half of the group was only playing around, the looks on their faces would have been quite the sight to see.