The New Chimera

Lilith stared Tess down, letting her intimidation auras leak out a small amount. She could tell that Tess was feeling the pressure, and she just wanted to spook her, not throw her off of the fight entirely, so she made sure to not overdo it.

Lilith’s suit faded away into a casual shirt and shorts, while her pistols materialized on her waist. For her part, a set of long, gleaming claws slid out of Tess’s fingers, and her suit melted into a slightly less formal but still sharp-looking suit, one that Lilith could tell was a pretty good set of armor.

“Um…begin?” Lia ventured, voice crackling to life over the speakers. “They can hear me, right?”

“We can hear you, Lia.” Lilith said, studying Tess carefully. “Tess, would you rather I made the first move, or you?”

Tess’s expression grew determined, and she started to gather Mana and Stamina around herself, focusing on her claws in particular. Lilith waited patiently until, finally, Tess rushed for Lilith and let loose a roar, one that dug into Lilith’s psyche and tried to scare her stiff.

Tried, but didn’t succeed. Lilith was able to easily rebuff the mental attack, watching as a line of Mana connected Tess to a spot in space directly in front of Lilith, the exact location wavering slightly as Tess’s intended location shifted. Lilith prepared herself for the attack, pre-emptively growing a tentacle to ensnare the arm that Tess was already moving. And, sure enough, moments later Tess appeared at the end of the line of Mana, in perfect position for Lilith to restrict her movements with the tentacle.

“Not bad.” Lilith said, noting the line of Mana already leaving Tess and heading towards another spot. “You’re a lot faster than I had thought you were going to be. I suppose that just goes to show the difference in our worlds’ strengths.”

Tess teleported away, and Lilith followed at the same moment, adjusting her tentacle so she caught Tess in the new position. “FYI, I can sense where you’re going to appear.” Lilith informed Tess. “I –”

Tess slashed down at the tentacle connecting the two, and the claws seemed to pass through it, leaving behind a chaotic cloud of roiling Mana in their wake. It bubbled inside of Lilith for a moment before exploding, severing Lilith’s tentacle and attempting to inflict all sorts of nasty side-effects in the process.

Fortunately, Lilith had long since made a point of getting every status immunity she could possibly think of, as well as as many general resistance buffs she could find; though the statuses seemed far more potent than normal, Lilith was able to dodge the vast majority of them.

“Ow.” Lilith said, more for the sake of saying something than an actual expression of pain. “Looks like I was underestimating you a little.” She reached down for her pistols, twirling one of them about her fingers as she did. “I thought you weren’t going to be able to give me a real fight until you were older and more trained.” It still didn’t seem like Tess would be that big of an obstacle, but Lilith played it up for her sake; there was no point in injuring her pride further than her defeat would already.

Silky, Isabella, distract her! Tess ordered mentally. Lilith had already neatly inserted herself into Tess’s mind to scan for just this type of communication, allowing her knowledge of exactly what Tess intended. I’m going to need to land more of those if we want to win! Tess continued, seemingly unaware of Lilith’s eavesdropping.

Yes, Mistress! Another voice replied. As it did, a spider crawled out of Tess’s clothes and made a leap for the ground, one which Lilith intercepted with a bullet. She might not have had Mae there to run the calculations and perfect her aim, but Lilith was more than capable of landing the shot in such a calm environment.

As the bullet landed, the spider was thrown away by the impact, corpse disappearing in mid-flight. “Sorry, didn’t think she could – eh?” The spider’s voice came in through the speakers. “Wait, how…”

“It’s fine, Silky!” Tess yelled. “You did your best!” The moment she said that she withdrew in on herself, commiserating with her other summoned monster. Isabella, new plan, focus on defense. We lose if one of those hits me. We’ll have to –

Lilith fired a warning shot, aiming just inches away from Tess’s arm. “Fight’s still going!” Lilith said. “I gave you that bit to recover since that whole speaker thing was a bit of a surprise, but I can’t give you all day!”

A wall of earth appeared between Tess and Lilith, and Tess began running away, trying to use the wall as cover for her retreat. Mountain out of a Molehill, now. It’ll only buy us a little time, but I need to think, we can’t approach this blindly.

The earth around Lilith rumbled as a mound of earth erupted, forming a sphere that enclosed Tess inside. Lilith strolled leisurely towards it, keeping a careful watch on Tess using her expanded senses. And, as Lilith shifted into a worm to dig through the earth, the atmosphere…changed.

Another presence entered Tess’s head, and Lilith metaphorically slunk to the side, keeping her tampering as out of sight as possible. The new presence was clearly a Higher Being, Tess’s patron god, if Lilith were to guess.

Never fear, Fortune is here! The new presence proclaimed.

What? Tess asked. But you weren’t –

I just got summoned here and I have a vague idea of what’s going on. I’m going to Descend, alright?

Please do!

The atmosphere charged itself even further as Tess and Fortune activated their Descent, and Lilith could feel the laws of reality warp around them, bending themselves to the two girls’ wills.

So, I’m assuming our opponent has Worship, right? Fortune asked.

Yes. She’s a Higher Being, with some sort of extra thing kind of like Monster Breeder tagged on? To be honest, I’m a little fuzzy with the details.

Is she from –

Lilith didn’t let her finish her sentence, choosing that moment to burrow out of the wall and shift back to her normal form.

Tess? Fortune said.

Yeah? Tess replied.

We’re going to lose.

What?!

I can’t beat her. She’s highly resistant to status effects, and my probability manipulation is going to work at greatly reduced effectiveness. I’m not built for combat, and she’s built especially for combat.

“Oh, is this the god you’re work for?” Lilith asked, feigning curiosity. “Pleased to meet you, my name’s Lilith.”

“Likewise.” Fortune said, using Tess’s mouth to speak. “I’m Fortune. I don’t suppose there’s any chance of you going easy on us?”

Lilith flashed her a smile. “I’m only using as much strength as I feel is necessary to win, if that counts.”

“Good enough, I suppose. Let’s go, then.”

As she finished speaking, the structural integrity of the hill they were inside of failed, a crack spreading out from the tunnel that Lilith had made, followed shortly by the complete collapse of the hill.

A small circle around Tess was left untouched by the soil, and Tess began to run backwards through it.

“Ah, you’re kind of like Isa.” Lilith said, burrowing through the soil that had fallen on top of her. “Annoying, that. Suppose we’re going to be doing hand to hand combat, then.” She reluctantly tucked away her guns and rushed forward, taking care to avoid loose patches of soil that spontaneously appeared wherever she was going to step.

Probability manipulators were annoying, but Lilith had gotten somewhat used to them thanks to Isa. Isa’s fighting style revolved around causing as much chaos as possible and using a combination of almost every single luck-enhancing ability around to heavily skew that chaos in her favor. Fortunately, Lilith’s innate Worship provided her with a solid resistance to those types of effects, so she was able to work around them much easier than she should have been able to. It didn’t stop ranged attacks becoming untenable, but it was not the game-ender it would otherwise have been.

Tess and Fortune cast small spells to harry Lilith as they began to focus their Mana and Stamina on their claws once again, and a storm rolled in from seemingly nowhere. As Lilith neared the two, the hair on her body stood up, and she quickly transformed herself into rubber to disperse the energy of the coming lightning as much as possible.

It still hurt a little, Worship infused attacks tended to do that, but it was completely manageable for her as she covered herself in a carapace and turned her arm into a cudgel which she swung down at Tess.

Tess took the attack on a claw, a sharp crack filling the air as the two weapons met. Lilith was somewhat surprised by the resistance the claws put up, but after only a moment they cracked and then shattered, the pieces of claw all flying towards Lilith instead of taking the trajectories they rightfully should have taken.

Lilith caught them with her cudgel, then activated Zoan’s Barrier just in time for Tess and Fortune to swing their remaining claws at Lilith. There was an awful screech as they claws hit the barrier, and Tess and Fortune stopped for a second, their own mana beginning to boil inside of their body.

And then it burst, and Tess erupted into a pillar of flame. She staggered backwards, the flame absorbing into some other ability while she ripped a wriggling parasite out of a large gash in her arm.

The atmosphere changed once again as four additional presences began to enter the field, and an unpleasant writhing sensation began underneath Lilith’s skin. And, as they fully materialized, Ellie appeared between Tess and Lilith, while Maven was a ways behind both of her party members. Both of the newcomers were sharing their heads with a god, and Ellie raised a hand, a small pulse of Mana ringing out and completely healing Tess.

“Oh?” Lilith said, arching a brow. “More of you?”

“We wanted to see a fairer fight.” Ellie said, a stern man’s voice audible just below her own. “And the four of us are apparently the ticket. Maven, Dungeons, don’t forget that Lilith is a dungeon herself!”

“Yeah, we weren’t forgetting anytime soon.” Maven and her god responded, face screwed up in concentration. “One problem with that, we can’t do anything to her!”

The writhing sensation intensified, and Lilith had to use more willpower than she would have liked to keep it under control. “Oh, you’re doing things to me alright.” Lilith said. “This is supremely uncomfortable.”

She teleported a short distance away, pulling out her pistols and beginning to change them into something with a bit more punch. “Alright then…I doubt this will work, but it’s worth a shot.” She finished her modifications, then fired both pistols, one at Tess, the other at Maven. The modifications she made resulted in a large boom as the bullets left the barrels, hurtling towards their targets.

As Lilith had expected, Ellie was already trying to intercept the bullet meant for Tess, concentrating her Mana on her shield and drawing the bullet slightly towards it. The shot aimed for Maven went wide thanks to Tess and Fortune’s meddling, but that wasn’t really the point; while Ellie still had her projectile attraction ability going, Lilith fired a third shot at her before slamming her guns together and morphing them into a huge rifle.

The bullet intended for Ellie struck true, flying through Ellie’s shield and embedding itself in her arm, where it ruptured, the material greedily converting Ellie’s blood into more of itself, spreading through her veins like a wildfire.

She didn’t let that happen for long, though, sending out another small pulse of Mana and fully expelling the material from her body, letting it rip through the skin only for her flesh to knit itself back together again.

What can we even do here? Tess asked Fortune.

I think we’re the wincon. Fortune replied. “Ellie, Life, heal us in five seconds!” She shouted, bringing a clawed hand up to her throat before slicing it open. Suddenly, the bleeding stopped, and a huge source of Mana welled up within Tess, and then Ellie let out another pulse of healing, and Tess was all fixed up again.

But those few seconds were enough for Lilith to finish her gun modifications, and she fired a shot at Ellie, aiming to kill her in one fell swoop and cut off any further healing. There was a flash of blinding light and a massive boom, and then the miniature cannonball that was the bullet impacted Ellie’s shield, crumpling it up and driving it into Ellie’s body, sending them flying just over ten yards backwards. And yet, Ellie lived, standing up shakily and healing herself as she cast off her shield.

“You’re still alive?” Lilith said, surprised. “Impress –” She was cut off as the writhing sensation under her skin suddenly intensified and her form began to destabilize. And, just as it seemed that she was going to have to designate a much more significant portion of her attention just to get hirself under control, her Parallels appeared, and the added mental strength of Mae, Nuwa, and Eve allowed her to suppress Maven’s influence entirely.

Sheesh. I leave you alone for five minutes and you nearly lose a fight. Don’t embarrass us in front of them, will you? Eve joked.

Alright, maybe I underestimated how annoying their abilities were, but I wasn’t going to lose. Lilith protested. I just wouldn’t have won in style.

Yeah, yeah. Less talking, more fighting.

Outwardly, Lilith grinned. “It looks like the kid gloves are off.” She said. On cue, Eve and Nuwa appeared next to her, Eve in her preferred form and Nuwa using the spare Avatar.

I’ll take Maven, Nuwa you deal with Ellie, and Eve can take Tess. Lilith instructed, sharing a look with her Parallels.

Way ahead of you. Eve said, dashing towards Tess.

I’ll keep them busy while you mop up the other two. Nuwa added.

Thanks, guys. Lilith replied, arriving at Maven a moment later. “Sorry,” She said, levelling the gun at Maven and preparing the nastiest bullet she had, one Raesn had cooked up with chimerum and several eldritch materials, “but playtime’s over.”

As she fired, the world around them distorted, a small dungeon space cropping up in an attempt to block out the bullet, but the bullet punched through space itself on its way to its target, ignoring the dungeon entirely as it hit Maven square in the chest, her body disappearing as she unceremoniously died.

Lilith spared no time in turning around and dashing for Ellie, whom Nuwa was keeping busy with a series of unorthodox attacks, transforming her body to attack from unexpected or seemingly impossible angles. While each strike wasn’t enough to kill Ellie on its own, they instead wounded or dismembered her, forcing her to constantly send out pulses of healing just to keep herself in some semblance of working order.

And Eve was bearing down on Tess and Fortune, intimidation skills on full blast as she bulldozed through the obstacles they threw at her, a sword not dissimilar to Anala’s held aloft alongside the chimerum sword that had killed Carmen. Tess’s claws were able to block the prototype, but the chimerum sword didn’t even seem to register that the claws were there, slicing through them with no effort at all and scoring a small gash on Tess.

That sword is bad news! Fortune said, panic evident in her voice. It’s like…like a conceptual antithesis to life in general!

At that time, Ellie’s healing reached Tess, and Eve was satisfied to note that it didn’t properly work on the wound made by the chimerum sword. It closed partially, yes, but still an ugly gash remained, dripping blood.

“Don’t get distracted.” Eve said, swinging the chimerum sword down on Tess as Tess was glancing over to Ellie. When she realized what was happening, Tess attempted to teleport away, but Eve clamped down on the Mana in the teleport, blocking the teleport by just smothering it in an overwhelming tide of her own Mana. All the while, her sword swung unerringly towards Tess, and it would have been a killing blow, but the spirit that had been hiding in Tess the whole fight surged out of Tess’s body, throwing Tess back as it took the sword blow and died.

Tess staggered to her feet, but Eve was already there, tackling her back to the ground and pinning her there. “Yield.” Eve commanded, placing the chimerum sword at Tess’s neck. “You’re not beating me, and I’d rather not hurt you more than I have to.”

“I…” Tess trailed off, glancing over at where Maven had been, and then back to where Ellie was.

“Well?” Eve asked impatiently. “Five seconds before I take your head off.”

“I yield.” Tess said, vanishing into thin air.

And, just then, Nuwa had pinned Ellie for long enough for Lilith to line up a shot on her head with another of Raesn’s bullets, punching clean through her and ending the fight for real.

“She’s a monster.” Lia was whispering. “I knew she was tough, but…”

“In all fairness, the whole idea behind me in the first place was to be as strong as possible while completely ignoring any semblance of balance.” Lilith said. “And the three of them are not anywhere near their full potential yet. I’m sure that, were I to fight the three of them from the present, I’d be absolutely destroyed.”

“How far in the future are you?” Fortune asked.

“Fifty years, give or take.” Lilith replied. “Though I like to think that whoever is from the furthest in the future is from the “real” present, and I’m sure someone at this party is farther ahead in the timeline than me.”

“Jerry looked into this phenomenon at one of these parties.” Life mused. “I believe his conclusion was that all times people are from are equally the present. He had some reasoning that escapes me at the moment, but it boiled down to not being able to apply the normal rules to this space.

“And, though attempting to teach you anything is a pointless endeavor due to the nature of this place, I would suggest you three treat this as a lesson; Descents are the bare minimum for combat if you are to engage Higher Beings in combat, not the instant victory they are in normal situations.”

“It’s like…I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s not fair in the same way normal combat is fair.” Another person said. She was nonchalantly sitting on a counter and kicking her feet back and forth, acting like she had been there the whole time. “Everyone’s got some stupid busted ability, and you basically have to be a Higher Being or otherwise infused with a lot of Worship to even have a shot at resisting those.”

Eve nodded. “I’m also well suited for this style of combat.” She explained. “I basically double or triple dipped on Worship, so I’m more resistant than normal to whatever “unfair” stuff other Higher Beings have.”

We should probably introduce ourselves. Mae reminded her. They only know Lilith.

“Right. I’m Eve, she’s Nuwa,” Eve said, motioning towards Nuwa, “and you can’t see her, but Mae is in Lilith’s head as our resident numbers gal slash supercomputer. We’re all alternate personalities of Lilith, but are treated as the same person for the purpose of Skills and stuff.”

To be precise, I am distributed around all parts of her body in order to maximize processing power. Mae corrected. It is good to meet you.

“Wait, if you can do that double dip or whatever, why doesn’t everyone do it?” Lia asked. “Seems like a no-brainer.”

“I…don’t know, actually.” Eve admitted. “I never really thought about it.”

“I have.” Dungeons said. “Usually, it’s a matter of numbers. Creating a new Higher Being is expensive, and they usually perform a vital task for the planes they oversee. Not many people are able to mentally handle such strain, and I believe Lilith only can because of her unique circumstances.

“The offensive benefits of such an endeavor are usually low, too; their resistance to other tampering increases, but outside of a few cases, each individual ability they possess does not become harder to resist. And, as combat between Higher Beings only occurs in the wars for planes, it is often seen as wasteful to put all your eggs in one basket for an event that only happens infrequently, especially when it results in such an increased workload to the Higher Being. Lilith is the exception to this rule, however, being able to split her mind as she has.”

Lilith shrugged. “Eldritch stuff may have poor compatibility with most people, but my whole schtick is being compatible with everything, so I get to use it worry-free. Anyway…what was with those mid-fight powerups? At the end there, it was a very

different fight to what we set out to try.”

“I wanted to see both of you put your full potential out there.” Rose volunteered. “Though…perhaps your capabilities were not as fully tested as I thought they would be.”

“Yeah, you didn’t seem to be using anything expressly unfair.” Ellie said. “Except for that one time you reflected Tess’s attack. Surely, you’ve got something, right?”

“Much of it isn’t great for this kind of friendly fight,” Lilith said, “and what is isn’t flashy. I have lots of stat increases, ways to steal abilities or permanently seal the abilities of my foes, and even an instant-kill if I’m willing to either spend enough Worship or dip into my own health to do it. I didn’t want to try that last one, since it’s a bit risky and I’m not sure it would even work against you all.”

“And I mostly command monsters.” Eve added. “Not that they allowed me any of mine.”

“They wouldn’t have been much help.” Nuwa said quietly. “They don’t have any Worship in them, except for Saria, and she doesn’t have enough to make a huge difference. Tess and Fortune alone likely would have shut them down by just existing.”

“What was with that sword of yours, by the way?” Fortune asked. “I haven’t seen anything quite like it.”

“Necessity is the mother of invention.” Eve said, drawing the sword out from some unseen place and very gingerly setting it down on a table. “Perfect Chimeras are every species at once, so some genius got the idea to make a material specifically geared at combating them. This sword is…special, though. It was the first of these weapons to be produced, and people have already built up a mythos surrounding it. I’m pretty sure that like…I dunno, almost meets the criteria for it getting Worship? It doesn’t have any, yeah, but it definitely feels like…more than a normal weapon.”

“It is not uncommon for particularly notable weapons to obtain some power from how they are perceived.” Life said. “Though I must admit that I have never seen one with quite as deadly a base as that get the treatment.”

“To be honest, I can’t even touch the blade without gloves.” Eve admitted. “If I do, I get horribly burnt and it takes way longer than it should to heal. The only reason I even use it is because I can safely take it out of reach of anyone but me at a moment’s notice, otherwise that thing would stay locked up until the end of time. Not worth carrying my one weakness with me and all that.”

“May I?” The as of yet unknown woman asked, motioning towards the sword. “Oh, I’m Death, by the way. Life and I share Ellie as our appointed, two sides of the same coin and all that.”

“Go ahead.” Eve said. “Just be careful with it. I’m guessing this party won’t let you hurt yourself too much, but I don’t like to take risks with that thing.”

Death carefully picked up the sword, then stepped back from the others and gave it a few test swings. “Man do I wish I had this thing when I was making the Blades of Death.” She said approvingly. “I totally would have co-opted it into one of them.”

“Mind if I take a look at these blades?” Eve asked curiously. “I want to see how they stack up.”

“Knock yourself out. They’re not as good as your sword, but they also don’t have like…a story to them yet, so they don’t have that weird power bump. Give it a few hundred years or a particularly bloody conflict and they might well rival this thing.” Death said, a set of swords materializing on the table where Eve’s sword had laid previously.

She picked up the swords, absentmindedly growing another pair of arms so she had a hand for each of the four swords. “To tell you the truth, I would absolutely trade you if I could.” She admitted. “That thing is much too dangerous to me specifically, and it’s usually overkill anyway. These swords are much more fit for general use.”

“How did you get this thing storied so quickly, anyway?” Death asked. “It only feels a few years old.”

“A combination of a lot of things.” Eve said. “For one, it killed another of our personalities, and for two it’s kinda like the first atomic bomb in how it changed the dynamic of warfare. The fact that I’ve been publicly using it to great effect helps, too. We’re at a turning point in our planes, the kind of time when legends are made. It was the perfect storm, so to speak.”

“What is an atomic bomb?” Lia asked quietly. “And this sword killed one of you?”

“She got better.” Eve said nonchalantly. “Very long story, but the short version is that the ‘main’ personality –”

“Inasmuch as any of us can be called a main or side personality anymore.” Lilith interrupted.

“The main personality,” Eve continued, rolling her eyes, “was actually split from a previous soul that Kali messed up in reincarnating. And that other personality that died was the other half. She let herself get killed so the two could merge, becoming the Lilith you see before you today.”

“And, to answer your other question,” Lilith said, not giving Eve time to continue, “an atom bomb is an incredibly destructive weapon constructed entirely without magic, one strong enough to wipe an entire city off the map with one firing.”

“That strong?” Tess asked doubtfully. “I know bombs can level a building or two, but an entire city?”

“That strong.” Death confirmed. “We’ve very deliberately prevented that technology from being researched in any sort of detail; there are no good outcomes when nuclear weapons are involved, and the positives can be easily replicated with magic.” She paused, looking at Lilith. “Did they get any stronger since our day? Were they used again?”

Lilith sighed. “Estimates put us at three thousand times stronger before magic was involved, and five to six times that now that people have begun to incorporate magic.”

Life shuddered. “You do have plans to curb their development, yes?” He asked. “This seems…excessive.”

“Eventually.” Lilith confirmed. “Once things stabilize.”

“Um…” Lia interjected, “don’t you guys do like…wars for new planes or something? Surely these bombs would be helpful there, right?”

“No.” Lilith said. “Most Higher Beings have ways to survive a nuclear weapon, and they can leave the land where they detonate uninhabitable for a long time to come. As Death said, there are no good outcomes when nuclear weaponry is involved.”

“But that’s a downer of a topic.” Fortune said, clapping her hands. “We’re at a party, let’s have a little fun with it! First off, introductions. I’m the god of Fortune, resident cool lady and the god Tess is an Appointed of.”

Everyone went around one by one and introduced themselves, and, once they had, Fortune began to speak again. “So, what’s on the agenda? More mock battles? Ooh, or maybe we could run a trial dungeon as a group!”

“That’s a thing here?” Ellie asked.

“Everything’s a thing here, as long as it’s entertaining.” Fortune said, waving a hand dismissively. “Though I can’t guarantee it’ll be much like the dungeons we know.”

“I…think I’ll have to pass on that.” Lia said quietly. “I’m afraid I won’t be of much use when all of you are around.”

“Nonsense.” Fortune said. “Anything is possible here, we can easily standardize our abilities so everyone has a –” She cut off, disappearing from existence abruptly, and Lilith’s Parallels and the other gods likewise vanished.

“I suppose they didn’t have a proper invitation, and their time here was limited.” Rose said. “A shame, but a smaller group is likely better for the time being, I think Lia was getting a bit overwhelmed.”

Lia nodded. “Sorry.” She said. “I know they’re important to you. And…literally you, I think?” She directed that last part at Lilith, a slightly confused look on her face.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Lilith sighed. “I know it’s confusing, sorry. It sort of comes with the territory of technically being an eldritch abomination.”

“Eldritch?” Lia asked, frown deepening. “The word’s been thrown around a couple of times but I’m not quite sure what it means.”

“A very esoteric section, forbidden section of magic.” Rose explained. “While it brings great power, those who use it tend to go insane.”

“It only even works for me because of the way I am.” Lilith said. “When your whole schtick is compatibility with everything, you get a lot of leeway in things like this. Up to and including the systems of other universes, though we haven’t tested that much. Just had a brief moment in their universe,” Lilith said, motioning to Tess and Ellie, “and then Amy shut it down.”

“Really?” Ellie asked. “What did your stats translate to?”

“Gibberish.” Lilith replied. “All my stats and growths had decimal portions, my level wasn’t even a number and was glitched out, as were Skills, Classes, and Titles. As Amy said, it was very broken.”

“But you did have numbers, right?” Ellie pressed. “What were they?”

“Fifteen hundred on the low end, twenty four hundred on the high end.” Lilith replied. “But I don’t think you should put much stock in those numbers, your system threw a fit and wasn’t handling me correctly. What’s the normal range?”

“For someone level forty to fifty? Two hundred and fiftyish.” Ellie replied. “The maximum growth you can get is ten, or one hundred for resources, and the highest leveled person on our planes is…level one sixty, I think? And his highest stat is only about fifteen hundred and fifty, so I think you might well have higher stats than would even be possible in our universe.”

Lilith shrugged. “Again, don’t put too much stock in those numbers. If my lowest is that close to your universe’s highest, then the details have to be wrong. What level are you guys?”

“Late thirties, early forties.” Ellie said. “I have the best stat spread and Tess has nearly the worst, so we’re not exactly good reference points, Maven would be better.”

“True as that may be, you did not move like someone with that much Agility would move, unless you were holding back significantly at the end.” Maven added.

Lilith shook her head. “I was holding back a little bit, but not a lot.”

“Then, yes, the stats you saw were indeed incorrect.” Maven said. “While my eye is still somewhat untrained, I would not estimate your Agility to be greater than one thousand.”

“Sounds about right.” Lilith said. “So, for real, what’s next?”

“Cards?” Lia offered. “I don’t feel like doing anything too physical at the moment.”

“I’m down to play cards.” Ellie replied.

And, after everyone else said they were fine with cards, they did. After cards they did a couple more activities, and as they were moving between them, Tess, Ellie, and Maven disappeared. “Looks like it’s time to go.” Lilith said. “Pleasure hanging out with you again, Lia. Hopefully we’ll see each other next time, too.”

“I think I would like that. I –” Lilith didn’t hear what she said next; she was back home, none the wiser as to the party’s existence.