“The entrance to the dungeons are just beyond the hallway behind that door,” said Scout, pointing towards the collection of rotting wood held together by rusting iron bars along its top and bottom. “Guns at the ready this time in case of another ambush.”

The rest of Squad Charlie nodded, pulling out their silenced pistols and cocking their shotguns.

“Visors show a couple of soldiers standing in front of a row of prison cells that our kids are inside. We’ll go with the same plan as last time, but throw in a smoke grenade for extra measure. Don’t want to risk someone having a [Remove Blindness] Skill or something.”

Another round of nods, and the group slowly opened the door and silently made their way through the corridor. It didn’t take too long for them to clear the empty space, even at the snail’s pace they were forced into with a pair of soldiers walking backwards and another two being entirely fixated on the ground and ceiling.

As they reached the end of the passage, Scout held up a hand and moved it across his mouth, getting everyone to reflexively stop. Not a word left their lips as they skulked up to the last wooden door before their target.

“Will you submit to the goddess?” asked a man in a haughty voice from inside.

“Oh sure, I’d love to submit to the bitch who dragged me here and made my life a living hell!” replied another voice, one belonging to a young man. “Want me to polish that statue of her you have over there while I’m at it? I’ll give it a real good spit shine! Aah!”

“Silence! I will not have you sully the good name of Allivaine! One more insult to her and I’ll aim a little higher than your cheek with this knife next time!”

“Can’t sully something that was never there in the first place,” the young man chuckled through the pain. “And besides, what kind of super soldier would I be to you if I was missing an eye? Seriously, you have to think your threats through a little better than that.”

“You’d best be careful, child. There are plenty of permanent injuries I can inflict that won’t affect your ability to fight.”

“Uh hey, Mr. priest?” interrupted one of the other guards in the room. “I thought we summoned these kids here, not the goddess.”

“The summoning ritual was provided to your king by the grace of the goddess herself,” the first man answered impatiently. “Now if you would please, I have one of her unwilling chosen to torture into compliance.”

“Oh right, sorry.”

Back outside, Scout and several of the others silently grimaced, others starting to feel an itch on their trigger fingers. It didn’t take long before the squad leader had enough, and made a quick series of forceful hand gestures. The others understood well enough and began setting up.

Partway through, Stacy indicated that several of the guards were specifically turned towards the door and were armed with crossbows. With another quick series of gestures, the plan went through a few minor changes, but otherwise still the same.

Ten seconds total and everyone was set up. Now, with guns and breaching gear at the ready, Scout began counting down with his fingers from 3, 2, 1…

The flashbang and smokescreen spell scrolls slid underneath the door detonated alongside the breaching charge along the stone wall. Chaos and pandemonium filled the dungeon room, with the guards firing at the still-closed door with their ranged weapons in a vain attempt at hitting the intruders, while Squad Charlie entered through the new hole in the now-gravel wall with weapons raised.

A quick series of precise gunshots took down the majority of the enemies, the soldiers being careful to aim away from the children trapped behind the iron bars in the back. Their shrill screams accompanied the sound of explosions and supersonic steel-jacketed rounds, despite no harm coming their way.

“One more move, and I ssslit the boy’s throat!” shouted the priest with a hissing cadence.

The smoke quickly cleared out of the room with a wave of the holy man’s hand, and Squad Charlie found themselves face-to-face with the apparent ringleader. Dressed in a white robe with a wide vertical blue stripe going down its center, the seemingly older man glared at his enemies with slit-pupiled eyes. In one hand he held one of the children, and in the other, a dagger pressed to the boy’s throat.

Squad Charlie instinctively pointed their guns at the snake-like priest, fingers on their triggers, but nobody dared even twitch.

“You’ve come here for the goddess’ gift, haven’t you?” asked the priest. “By her will, they won’t be leaving with you, they’re our soldiers!”

“If that’s the case, just shoot us both now,” said the young man with a sigh. “I’m fucking done with this.”

“Sssilence!” shouted the priest, tightening his grip on the knife.

“Or you could do the job instead, I’m not picky. I’m just done.”

“Uh, we’re actually here to just rescue you all,” interrupted Scout. “Not make you into soldiers.”

“Sure you are,” the kid replied with an eye roll. “Just like how everyone we’ve run into so far wanted to do just that and not turn us into their own private army! What the hell else would you guys want with us? What makes you so different?”

“Well for starters, we’re also from Earth,” said Scout. “We really are here to rescue you kids and get you somewhere safe. I mean, look! We’ve got guns and modern body armor. How else would we have these?”

“Yeah, and I’m the Queen of England.”

“Well that explains why you’re not scared of getting killed,” replied Scout with a nervous chuckle. “You think you’re going to live as long as her?”

The young man’s eyes went wide.

Scout smiled back. “About time.”

“You people hold the sssecret to immortality?!” all but shouted the priest. “Why don’t you share the secret with us too? I’m sssure the goddess will appreciate such information.”

“Hey, snake fucker,” shouted the kid, looking up at the priest with a glare. “Do you really need me that badly? You don’t seem all that concerned with my wellbeing with that knife you have to my throat, and that torture you were putting me through earlier.”

“I was only doing it to break your will, but after that remark, I’ll at least get more enjoyment out of your suffering once I continue. I have ssseen what you have done to sssurvive, unlike the rest of this miserable lot. You shall make one of the goddess’ greatest soldiers.”

“That’s all I needed to hear,” replied the young man with a smile, as he contorted one of his arms to lightly tap the priest on the back.

The snake-like man quickly turned his head with an angry look, instinctively expecting to find a bumbling guard too nervous to speak up, but instead saw nothing.

The kid held up his other hand next to the priest’s and concentrated for a brief moment before whispering, “[Steal Weapon].” In an instant, the knife the robed man was holding left his grip like a stick of butter and flew into the young man’s open hand.

“What the- Aaah!” was all the priest could let out before the kid turned around and stabbed him in the heart with the knife before diving to the ground.

The snake-like scream was accentuated with a single gunshot, tearing a clean hole in the priest’s forehead.

“Alright then, great job team!” exclaimed Scout. “Now let’s get these kids out of-”

“You’ll pay…” came a low sound from the robed man’s lips. His hand lifted to the air, now adorned with a cloak of red-hot embers, as a pair of fangs began to grow out of his mouth. He took a step forward, green ichor oozing out of his head. “By the goddess, you shan’t leave here alive…”

“Open fire!” screamed Stacy as the entirety of Squad Charlie began to gun down the priest. Explosions ringed from their weapons as the children in the back covered their ears, yet most were unable to look away from the horrific sight as steel-jacketed lead tore through the inhuman creature.

By the time the thing was at least a third holes, it finally stopped moving and collapsed to the floor in a ragdoll.

“Goddamn, what was that?!” shouted Roy.

“Don’t know, but I think blackops encountered something like it earlier,” replied Scout. “But on the bright side, this is the last time we’ll have to deal with this shit.”

The members of Squad Charlie began to calm down with a series of deep breaths and content smiles, as they lowered their weapons and looked towards the cells.

“Hi everyone,” said Scout with an earnest grin and a friendly wave. “We’re the Terran Otherworldly Advocacy League, TOAL for short, but you can just call us the Isekai Police! We’re here to help.”

“It’s taking them a while,” whispered Kazuma.

The entire room was stock silent as the viewers in TOAL headquarters looked upon the monitor with bated breath for any kind of update. Some of the others looked over to the Japanese man with a mix of annoyed looks and concern, not sure if they should tell him to be quiet or that they agreed. It really was taking a while.

“I’m going to be honest,” replied Kai at a similar volume. “I didn’t expect them to fill an entire hour with the squad’s biographies and statistics. Do you think they’re going to start making trading cards out of them or something?”

“I mean, I’d buy it,” shrugged Kazuma.

“Oh, me too! I’d totally run a Squad Romeo Deck. I wonder if the Danielle card’s going to have her showing off her abs? Do you think she has abs?”

At that point, several of the other viewers forcefully shushed the teen, eliciting a deep frown and outstretched tongue in reply.

“But yeah,” Kai continued, lowering his voice. “It’s taking a while.”

As the group continued to sit in silence, the camera immediately shifted to the distance to show a group of black silhouettes making their way across the wasteland and towards basecamp. As they got closer, the teen could make out the vague shape of motorcycles. And when they were finally illuminated by the evening sun, Kai could make out several people riding on each one, more than there were going in.

“This just in, everyone!” exclaimed the voice of an over-exuberant announcer from the broadcast. “Squad Charlie is back, and they’ve successfully rescued all of the children!”

The viewers suddenly burst into cheers, many of them rising into the air and shouting in joy. Kai himself couldn’t help but let out a smile and clap along with them. Cynicism on the overall presentation aside, he truly was glad TOAL was able to save these lives. Especially when he was so close to being one of them himself.

The bikes came to a stop once they were safely inside basecamp, and their riders dismounted. Each driver had one or two passengers sitting behind them, all much shorter or scrawnier than those at the front. As they removed their helmets, a red-headed figure approached them with his hands in the air and a dull look about him.

“Hello, everyone, you are now all safe. I’m sure Scout has already told you, but we’re the Terran Otherworldly Advocacy League. Regrettably, we won’t be able to send you back to Earth, but we’ll be giving each of you a much better life of your choice instead.”

The young man who’d ridden on the front-most motorcycle took an unsteady step forward. The camera zoomed in on his injured face, the operator probably expecting a grateful smile or something equally sappy as Kai assumed. Instead, they were met with a tear-stained scowl. Before the camera could pan away from the too-realistic shot, the boy began speaking.

“What took you people so long?!” he shouted, his voice beginning to squeak as his vocal cords strained under the volume. “Do you know what we’ve been through while waiting for you?!”

Everyone turned silent. Both at basecamp and the viewing party. Nobody knew what to say, or what to do. What could they, after all? Well, all except one.

“You’ve been through hell,” replied Gus after a moment.

“Hell? Hell?! Hell doesn’t even begin to describe it!”

“Desolation, suffering, torture as you clawed to survive being hunted by those monsters.”

“That’s right! We’ve been on the run for weeks, and had to do whatever it took to survive. We had to kill! People!”

“We’ve all been through something like that, we had to learn the hard way what the multiverse can be like. You-”

“Just two days ago, we were being chased by those… soldiers. They were about to catch us so my best friend gave his life to stall them to let us escape. He fucking died for us, and we just got captured a day later! Has your best friend ever died in vain for you?!”

“…”

“Yeah, I thought so. What the hell do you know about us? What could you give us to make this up? To make things better? Can you bring him back to life?”

“…”

“So are you going to say something?”

“Yes. And no.”

“…what the hell are you talking about?”

“I was answering your questions,” replied Gus in the same monotone, but with something visceral behind it now. “We can’t bring the dead back to life. But I’ve had close friends die in vain. Ask half the people here, we’ve all had someone close to us die, many times uselessly.”

“…”

“But TOAL isn’t some kind of pity party,” continued the red-headed man. “We keep fighting to stop it from happening to anyone else. We might’ve failed with saving your friend, but we got the rest of you out safely. How many of these kids would be mourning if you got killed too?”

“…all of them.”

“There’s an entire multiverse out there, and what happened to you isn't going to be the last time we’ll see such a horror. And we’ll be continuing the fight to keep what happened to your friend from happening to anyone else.”

“…”

“You asked us ‘what now?’ So here it is. We’re going to stop this from happening to anyone else. Are you going to sit there crying, or are you going to make your friend’s sacrifice worth it? Join our military, fight with us to help us do better.”

“…yeah.” The kid stepped forward and extended his hand out to Gus, who firmly grabbed it and shook. “I want to join you guys and stop this from happening again.”

“Then welcome to TOAL,” replied the red-headed man with a creaking smile.

As the rest of the viewing party looked on with wide eyes and big smiles of their own, Kai couldn’t help but lean back in his seat with a frown. It started as a contemplative look that slowly morphed into something fearful.

Motivational speech? No, this was a political power play to bolster TOAL’s ranks. If Gus was ready to play games with that kid’s life, was Kai also a piece? Was he also being manipulated into becoming a soldier?

Of course, Kai was sure he still had a choice in what he got to do after he graduated… mostly. But how far would the dull man go to have his way? The teen knew there was only one way to be truly safe.

But there’d be no use in a repeat performance of his first… second day escape attempt, but that wasn’t an idea to be entirely discarded. Kai resolved to begin packing his bugout bag for long term survival if it ever came to that, though he hoped it wouldn’t, but old paranoid habits died hard.