The Simulacrum

Part 1

"Ow."

"Uncle Polemos? Are you okay?"

"Yes, yes. Just some muscle cramps. Don't worry about me, Beansprout."

Ollie continued to look at me with clear concern, so I forced a smile onto my face and continued to arrange the LAGO sets we built over the past couple of days on the table. It was the same one that used to be my workbench, but since we needed a spot to display all of the stuff we built, I moved it over to Ollie's cell, and now it was holding not only the entire pirate set, but a space set with a shuttle, a train set, as well as six colour-coded robots that were using different components, including ball-joints, but were still technically compatible with the block-based sets.

The past couple of days were a bit of a blur for me. Yeah, I know; that was happening a lot lately. This time, it was mostly thanks to the mana burn sapping my will to live. When I returned to the dungeon, my headache was taking precedence, so I could barely feel the rest. On the second day, the headache went away, and I realised that the reason why I couldn't feel anything was that my whole body had become numb. It extended to my sense of smell and taste as well, and while initially I thought my vision was hard to focus thanks to the exhaustion, it was probably also caused by the mana burns.

Cal and Teeny had been working overtime to fix all that, so by the second day, I was no longer numb; my whole body was burning and aching instead, from head to toe. It got a bit better over time, but even now, it was like I had sore muscles everywhere. Needless to say, I didn't make any expeditions outside in this condition, so I'd been cooped up at the bottom of the dungeon and trying my best to distract myself from all my various aches as best as I could.

That was mostly done by Far Sighting, reading, and playing with Ollie. We ended up building all the LAGO sets that future-me got for him, and as of today, we just finished the last of them, hence the display on the table. I felt oddly satisfied with a job well done, while the kid… well…

"Uncle Polemos?"

"Yes?"

"We ran out of toys to build."

"That seems to be the case, yes."

"Then…" He stared at the LAGO sets with unflinching intensity, as if trying to steel himself for something, then faced me. When our eyes met, he flinched, but otherwise he remained determined and gulped hard. "Can we… build something else from them?"

"… I'm pretty sure that's like half the point of these things." My response made his expression light up, so I asked, "Do you have something in mind? Like a pirate spaceship or something?"

"No, not that!" He shook his head and picked up the large pirate ship. He could barely hold it in one hand, but he still struggled to do so, just so he could grab one of the ball-jointed figurines with his other hand. "Let's make a pirate ship robot!"

"I… How would you do that?"

That wasn't a rhetorical question. While the sets were technically compatible with each other, and the various studs, pins, and axles were designed to fit together, it didn't mean they were ever meant to be combined.

"I don't know yet, but I want to try!"

When faced with such unbridled enthusiasm, what other option did I have but to rub his noggin and say, "Lightspeed, Beansprout."

He beamed at me and brought the pirate set over to the carpet, along with two more of those LAGO robot things, and began disassembling them. I'd be lying if I said it didn't pain me to see all the work we put into building them be undone like that, but not following the guidelines and being creative was like half the point of these toys, so I let Ollie play as he wanted.

I couldn't provide any guidance, since I still had no idea how he planned to marry the two sets together, so I returned to my cell to grab a bottle of water. As soon as I was done with that, I reached for the ear-marked manga volume on the bed and made myself comfortable. Ever since I first woke up in the Simulacrum, I had spent a looot of time on researching tropes and story conventions, but due to the urgency of the situation at the time, I cast a wide net, reading summaries, plot synopses, and analyses of many works that felt relevant to our own scenario and the Narrative's designs.

That allowed me to develop a broad view on many genres and trends, but it also meant that my knowledge of the individual works was rather shallow. Since I was stuck here with nothing better to do, I used the long nights to catch up on a couple of seminal classics that I didn't have the time or will to tackle, and right now, I was in the middle of reading one of those genre-defining works, called Phoenix Cubes. It was about as old-school as shounen battle stories could get, though the first half of it was more of an adventure series. I just finished that last night, and was just getting ready to immerse myself in the second half and see what all the hype was about when my gaze accidentally landed on the clock on the wall.

It was the only indicator of time we had so deep underground, and I involuntarily let out a stumped, "Huh," when I saw where the hands were pointing. It was already past five in the afternoon. Time was moving uncomfortably fast lately, but more importantly, I was pretty sure there was something important going on this afternoon…

"Ah, right! The gang!"

I closed the book and sat up properly on the bed. A moment later, my point of view was… travelling at ninety kilometres an hour down a highway. It took a second to reorient myself and find the Constable LLC minivan on the road. Shifting my position, I entered inside the car.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?"

"Ay coorse aam sure! That's whit th' map says."

"Maybe we should use the GPS after all…"

"Ah tauld ye, we dornt need onie ay 'at talkin' computer mince, Penny gurl. Ah tauld ye Ah gie ye kids thaur oan time, an' i'll dae it mah way, end ay story."

"Fine, fine…" my sister grumbled, but didn't argue any more.

The minivan was filled to the brim. Duncan was driving, treating the company car as his personal property as usual, with Penny sitting on the front passenger seat. The row behind them was occupied by Josh, Angie, and Ammy, while the back row had Elly, Judy, and Snowy. In other words, it was just the 'core' of our little posse, consisting of Josh's past entourage with my girlfriends in tow.

While I was pretty out of it since the big battle with the arch-mage, and time felt like sand trickling through my fingers, my friends' days were anything but quick or uneventful. Marzanna's actions, the dissenters coming into the open, and their subsequent defeat and capture naturally caused huge waves in the World of Mystics, and none of them felt the impact more than the Magi.

Not only did one of their highest-ranking arch-mages, one of the custodians of a Grimoire Key, got caught actively conspiring to assault and capture the Conduit of the Grimoire within another School's jurisdiction, but she did so while colluding with renegade Celestials. All of that could only result in one outcome: emergency meetings. Emergency meetings up the wazoo.

Of course, since it was a trap set up by our little posse, with the help of Percival and the tacit support of the Praetorian Guards, all loose ends were cleaned up and all incriminating evidence was collected ahead of time. While my little 'expedition' in Ottawa was still a source of diplomatic tensions, pretty much the whole Assembly turned their collective backs on Marzanna thanks to all that, and thus all of her objections to the class rep's inauguration as the Conduit of the Grimoire were effectively discarded with prejudice.

That sounded nice and convenient, but this was supernatural politics, so things weren't that simple, and after a couple more of those pesky emergency meetings, it became obvious that the gears of bureaucracy were moving slowly, and not necessarily in the right direction. Last I checked, while Ammy was now nominally accepted as the Conduit, it just led to more delays, because now the Assembly wanted her to travel to Glasgow and go through a ceremony in front of the physical Grimoire stored there, while the rest of the team was effectively grounded on Critias due to being critical witnesses in a judiciary jurisdiction nightmare.

The Assembly naturally wanted to interrogate and punish Marzanna on their own. However, since the attack happened on Critias, which was implicitly Draconic Federation territory, and since there weren't any treaties of extradition between the power blocs yet, the Draconic Council wanted to set a precedent and deal with her under their (aka. our) laws. However, to be consistent with that, the Draconic Federation also demanded that Elysium hand over the captured Celestials involved in the affair, but Tsephanyah refused to do so, claiming that it was an internal matter, and they were going to punish the culprits themselves.

So yeah, that was effectively the three superpowers of the World of Mystics getting bogged down in a diplomatic cold war over it all. This was exactly the kind of red tape I could've turned into confetti as long as I was present, but my friends deigned to keep the fact that I contacted them a secret from the adults. Even Duncan, who was currently driving them to the middle of nowhere in the north-east of the island, was mostly in the dark about the situation and was only doing the group a favour because Penny pestered him.

"How much longer until we get there?" Ammy asked from the middle row, and the guy behind the driver's wheel let out a grunt.

"Abit an hoor. Hoor an' a half if th' roads ur shitty." At first, it seemed like that was the end of it, but then he frowned and took his attention off the road for a moment to glance at Penny. "Dae ye serioosly need tae come aw th' way it haur jist fur trainin'?"

"Y-Yes!" my knightly sister insisted, but while she put on a serious façade, the way she kept tugging at her seatbelt showed that she was nervous. "I-It's a very important spot! And we need to do it there! Training, I mean!"

Despite sitting in on Percival's skullduggery training with Snowy and Tajana, she was still a terrible liar.

Luckily, Duncan didn't notice that, or cared enough to point it out, as his eyes were already back on the road with a dismissive, "If ye say sae. Jist dornt gie yerself caught up in some guff ye cannae handle, aw reit?"

Or maybe he did have some suspicions after all.

"Don't worry, Sir MacCumhail. We know what we're doing," Judy noted from the back row, but he didn't respond and continued to drive.

I kept observing them, and while there was some bather every now and then, the insides of the car remained mostly silent until the end of the ride. Duncan's prediction was spot on, because it took them about an hour and a half to get to the end of a not particularly well-maintained side road leading to an old campsite in the woods. It was already summer, so it was still bright outside, and the bright green coniferous trees surrounding the clearing with a small, round brick fireplace and a few rough wooden benches were rather picturesque. Despite being off the beaten path, the campsite was clearly maintained by the local forestry.

The whole group streamed out of the minivan and waited for Duncan at the back of the vehicle. He opened up the storage compartment and handed out the large backpacks in there, everyone grabbing one in turn.

"Dae ye want me tae help ye sit up th' tents?"

"Oh, come on!" Penny huffed as she hoisted the biggest bag. "This isn't the first time I camped outside! We'll be fine!"

"If ye say sae..." The big guy made sure they'd collected everything before he pulled the door down and looked over the group, all dressed for trekking in the great outdoors. "Make sure ye swatch it fur ticks, mingin' wee bastards, n' whin ye train, aye mak' a R'stricted Spayc'. Juist fur tis th' middle o' nowhere, ye kin aye catch up wi` hikers 'n' whatnot."

"Yes, of course," Snowy responded with a disarming smile. "Thank you for the advice, Sir Duncan."

"Ey, dinnae ca' me Sir, lassie. A'm off-duty th'day." The big Knight let out a guffaw, followed by a soft sigh. "Fur howfur lang urr ye planning tae bade oot 'ere?"

"It's special training, so we don't know yet," Josh noted half-heartedly while looking at the campsite from a distance.

"What he means," Judy interjected, "is that we're planning to stay here until we see results, so it may take a while."

"We'll call you when we're ready to go home," Elly chimed in, and it made Duncan frown at her.

"That's braw 'n' dandy, missy, bit juist fur school's oot fur ye weans, it doesn't mean ah git a break fae wirk." He puffed up his chest and tried to look indignant, but he soon deflated and shook his head. "Eh, whitevur. Juist ca' me 'n' ah will pick ye up."

"Thanks, Duncan."

Penny tapped him on the shoulder, and the big guy's eyes glinted as he told her, "Dinnae mention it, lassie. Juist dinnae sling yer hook in th' woods, 'n' mak' sure ye dinnae anger th' Ghillie Dhu."

"The what?" Josh perked up at the sound of an unfamiliar term, but a rapidly reddening Penny waved her hands towards him.

"J-Just silly folk tale Duncan told me once to try and scare me! You don't need to know the details!"

"Tried?" the big Knight repeated after her with an impish grin, causing my sister to literally kick him in the butt and towards the car. "Ah, braw. A'm gaun. Hae fin wi' yer secret trainin', or whitevur!"

With that, he got back into the minivan and, after some more goodbyes and lots of waving, the car disappeared past the trees and out of sight. It was only at this point that everyone collectively let their guards down, and Penny, in particular, exhaled a long groan.

"It feels so wrong to deceive Duncan like this…"

"You remember what Percival said about it."

Hearing my other sister's comments made Penny slouch her shoulders and sigh again.

"To deceive your enemies, you must first deceive your allies, yes. It still feels wrong."

"We can't help it," Judy told her while hefting her backpack. "Despite his looks, Sir MacCumhail is the loyal and hierarchical type. If any of his superiors asked about it, he would've spilt the beans right away."

"To be fair…" Snowy spoke up with a hand showing, "I think Sir Roland was already suspecting something before we left, so…"

"My money's on Tajana," Josh blurted out, and when all the girls looked at him at once, he hastily added, "I mean, those two are like… You know? I'd bet money she let it slip, and that's why he was suspicious."

"It doesn't matter now," Angie stated firmly and gestured at the campsite. "Let's sit down and unpack first. What did you say? When are they coming?"

"After dark," came the answer from Elly, prompting everyone to glance at the sky.

"I guess we still have a couple of hours," Josh noted a tad absently, but then his face suddenly lit up and he asked, "Hey? Do you guys wanna make a campfire while we wait?"

"I don't know how to make one of those," was the first response, coming from Ammy. "I've never done anything like this before."

"Me neither, but that's all the more reason to try! Between all of us, I bet we can manage," Josh insisted, and it was the moment Penny chose to step forth.

"Fufu! Step aside! I, like all Entitled Knights bearing a Mantle, am fully trained for survival in the wilderness! Let the master show you how it's done!" She glanced around and pointed at the underbrush on the left. "First, let's gather some dry deadwood from the forest floor!"

"We'll clean up around the fireplace," Judy volunteered with Elly in tow, while Angie was getting more excited by the second.

"Oh, oh! Ammy, can you make skewers with magic? We can make some campfire bacon!" She didn't wait for the class rep's response and skipped over to the benches to put down her backpack. "Hey, guys? Did anyone pack marshmallows?"

"I brought a pack… Um… Just in case?"

Snowy's response made the Celestial girl beam at her like she had just seen her life's saviour, followed by an enthusiastic thumbs up. In the meantime, Penny and Josh waded into the woods looking for kindling, my girlfriends used their feet and some branches to sweep away the fallen pine cones and needles around the campfire, and the class rep's magical forehead-mark lit up as she consulted Grimmy on how to summon skewers, or something.

All in all, the whole group got busy with preparations. One thing was for sure, though: as enthusiastic as they were about the promise of fried bacon and marshmallows under the summer sky, this certainly wasn't a run-of-the-mill camping trip. More concerningly, this wasn't a last-minute training arc either.

"I better keep an eye on them…" I muttered under my breath and set the book I was planning to read for good, resolving myself to observe my friends for the rest of the evening and document whatever shenanigans they were up to this time.

Part 2

Summer nights had a certain… atmosphere? Vibe? Je ne sais quoi?

One of those three. At any rate, there was something special in the air, and I wasn't talking about the scent of freshly roasted bacon and marshmallows. The moonlight above and the gently burning flames of the campfire below created a picturesque scene right out of an advertisement booklet.

Come to Whatsitsname Park! Wonder at the beauty of nature! Sleep under the blanket of stars! Wrestle a bear! An unforgettable experience! (Disclaimer: Bear is not included in the basic package. For further information, contact customer support at this and that number.)

Or something like that. In any case, this was one of the rare few occasions when Far Sighting a scene like this made me a bit bummed out, because the gang sitting around the campfire looked really fun and cosy and I was feeling a bit left out.

"It's dark now," the class rep spoke up. She was the only one wrapped in a blanket (and a nice plaid one at that), and she pointed a finger at the sky. "Where are they?"

"They never said how dark," Judy replied glibly, and she even put an unusual amount of emphasis in her response.

It didn't impress Ammy. She let her hand down and glanced over her shoulder.

"I know I'm the one who proposed the plan, but this still feels off. What if we get ambushed?"

"I'm not too worried," Josh spoke nonchalantly, even as he casually soaked the excess fat off a piece of roasted bacon with a slice of bread. He blew on it before extending his skewer over the fire again, then added, "We beat an arch-mage the other day. I think we can deal with anything at this point."

"You say that as if it was easy," the class rep continued to mope and sidled closer to the fire.

"I mean, it wasn't that hard," Josh argued back, only to twitch when Penny chimed in from the other bench.

"Yeah, but if Brother didn't give us guidance, it could've dragged out much longer. Right, Snowy?"

My Abyssal sister blinked in surprise. She probably didn't understand why Penny was looking for her approval, but she eventually nodded along.

"S-Sure. I never would've considered healing the arch-mage to hurt her."

"Me neither!" came the next exclamation from Angie, and after blowing on her marshmallow a few times, she cheerfully added, "It was such a crazy idea! Only Leo could've come up with something like that!" She then paused and brought the marshmallow over to her mouth. "Okay, Grandpa. It's your turn. Make sure you don't burn our tongue this time."

Her eyes abruptly shifted to amber, and then Deus rolled them with a grumpy, "It wasn't my fault," before biting into the treat.

In the meantime, Judy muttered a quiet, "It was rather obvious in retrospect," which then caused the princess sitting next to her to blurt out a surprised, "Was it?"

My dear assistant gestured at her to lean closer, then whispered directly into her ear.

"It's a trope, related to the Puzzle Boss one, where the heroes have to find the loophole in a seemingly invincible enemy's abilities to deal damage to them. It's rather common."

"Is it?"

"Yes. I would've thought of it sooner or later. I think."

"Hey, what are you two whispering about? Is it a secret?" Angie accused them with a skewer aimed at them like a rapier. Thankfully, the distance (and the half-eaten marshmallow still stuck at the end of it) made it less threatening and more comical.

"Kind of?"

Elly's ambivalent response made everyone look at her funny, but then, before things could get awkward, Penny suddenly hammered her palm with her fist and let out a loud, "Ah!" sound.

"W-What?!"

Ammy almost fell off the bench in her surprise, which in turn caused Josh to jump to his feet and hold out his skewer like a sword, eyes scanning the woods around them. There was an awkward silence hanging over the clearing for a few seconds, right until Penny also stood up and showed her palms.

"A-Awawa! W-Wait! I just remembered something! No need to be alarmed!"

"Didn't you say you weren't worried, Boy? No need to be so skittish," Deus spoke up again with a smirk, and made a vague gesture at the edge of the clearing. "Polemos's little sister set up the wards, didn't she? Nobody will sneak up on us without our knowledge!"

After declaring so, she let out a soft huff and then proceeded to eat the other half of the marshmallow, and… was it just me, or have these two been switching on the drop of a hat as of late?

"I'm not skittish," Josh grumbled, but seeing that she was already lost in her own world with the roasted pastry, he sat back down and turned to my still-standing Knightly sister instead. "So? What did you remember? Is it something important?"

"N-No, not really…" Penny fidgeted for a while, but didn't take a seat, and instead she made a gesture towards the campfire. "It's just that… we're camping out right now, right?"

"Until they get here, yes," Judy commented in the affirmative, and my Knightly sister repeatedly nodded.

"Right, right, but we don't know when they'll arrive, so how about we do something fun to pass the time?"

"Aren't we already doing something like that?" Deus asked and pointed at the empty skewer in her hand. "Boy? Do we have more of these white fluffy candies?"

While Josh was checking that, Elly's eyes lit up and she exclaimed, "Oh, oh! Are we telling ghost stories!"

"No!" Penny snapped and crossed her forearms in front of her. "No scary stories! I was thinking about something else!" Seeing that all eyes were on her, she let her hands down and muttered, "Stupid ghosts. They don't even exist."

"They do, actually," Ammy noted absently, but wisely fell silent when my Knightly sister glared at her.

"They don't, and it's final!" Seeing that the class rep didn't argue, she smugly cleared her throat, as if she had just won a difficult academic debate, and began to explain her idea while wildly gesticulating. "Back during training, we used to play this game! It's like… we sit down in a circle, like we do right now, and then someone tells a secret, or something embarrassing, like what they're afraid of. If everyone's satisfied with it, then they pick the next person, and they have to tell an even bigger secret, or a more embarrassing story!"

"So it's essentially truth or dare," Judy stated, and Elly nodded along.

"Just without a dare! Or… what if the group isn't satisfied with what they hear? Is there a punishment?"

"Erm… Back then, the loser had to volunteer for night guard duty."

"Makes sense," Judy mused, though she didn't sound particularly invested in the conversation. "Are we doing that?"

"I sincerely hope they aren't going to be so late we need night guards…" Ammy griped and pulled her blanket tighter around her back.

Snowy inquired, "So it was more of a penalty game?" a tad uncertainly, and my other sister let out a noncommittal hum.

"Kind of. But it also helped build camaraderie! Sharing your deepest secrets with your fellows builds bonds stronger than steel! Or… so I've heard…"

"If you say so." Josh didn't sound especially interested in the game, but after a long beat, his lips curved into a mischievous smirk, and he pointed at my sister. "Okay, you start."

"W-What?" However, after the first reactive shock, Penny suddenly flashed a smug smirk of her own at him and pointed back. "Haha! Sucker! The earlier you go, the easier it is! You just did me a big favour!"

"Sure, sure. So, what's your big secret?"

Josh's insistent question made her smile wither at once, but after a few long seconds, she came up with something.

"So… you see… Back in the orphanage, I used to sleep with Brother every night!" She held her breath and was waiting to see everyone else's reaction… only to blurt out a confused, "What?" when nobody said anything.

"We're waiting for the embarrassing part."

Judy's explanation only made her look more flabbergasted, so Elly also added, "Or the… secret part? Was that a secret?"

"B-But…" Penny was getting steadily redder, clearly not anticipating that her 'embarrassing secret' would earn her no reaction, but after a few short seconds, she steeled herself and turned her forearms into an 'X' again. "Time out! That one didn't count! My real secret is that… um…" She glanced at Snowy, as if looking for inspiration, and her eyes suddenly lit up. "Ah! I got it! When we tested my Stealth Sigil, I went into the living room and made funny faces at Mom and Judy and Brother, and none of you noticed! It was sooo funny!"

"I still don't see how that's embarrassing, but whatever." Josh swept his gaze over the people around the campfire. "How do we decide if we accept it or not? Do we vote?"

Angie exclaimed a happy-go-lucky, "Sounds good!" and threw her hand in the air, followed by Snowy and my girlfriends as well. Seeing the consensus, Ammy also hurriedly poked a hand out of under her blanket, leaving Josh for last.

"Let's just say you started with a low-ball." He also raised his hand and then gestured for Penny to get on with it. "Okay, who's next?"

"Ah, l-let's go with Snowy!" she declared, and when my Abyssal sister looked startled, she hastily added, "I-I told you! The earlier you go, the easier it is!"

Snowy remained quiet for a while, thinking hard, but then she balled up her hands and asked, "So… uuu… It has to be something embarrassing?"

"Or a secret!" Elly chimed in, sounding oddly into the game.

"Or something you're secretly afraid of," Josh amended, and it made my Abyssal sister's brows descend into a troubled frown.

"In that case… um…" She took a deep breath to prepare herself, then admitted, "I'm… afraid of Noir." That was followed by a long beat and shaking her head. "No, I mean… I think I'm more afraid of going back. To how things used to be before. I… like living with Penny, and Leo, and going to school, so what if…?"

"Stop! Say no more!"

Penny didn't wait for her to finish and suddenly gave her a huge bear-hug. Snowy's eyes opened wide like saucers, but before she could fully collect herself, my other sister moved her face so close their noses almost touched, and she declared, "No matter what happens, you can count on us! The Dunning family leaves no one behind!"

That was sweet and all, but I couldn't help but feel that this whole off-brand truth-or-dare thing was going off the rails right from the start. They didn't even vote on whether her 'secret' was acceptable or not. Anyhow, once everyone reassured Snowy, it was her turn to pick the next 'contestant', and after some thinking, she pointed at my dear assistant.

"Me?" Snowy nodded, so Judy sat up straight and put a finger on her chin. "A secret, or something embarrassing…" She mused for quite a while, but just when the others were getting impatient, she told them, "You know how we have our polifidelous relationship with the Chief?"

"Sure, sure," Angie answered confidently, and while the others were less familiar with the terminology, it wasn't hard to figure out what she meant, so they nodded along.

"Yes. What of it?" Josh pressed her, yet she responded in the exact same nonchalantly deadpan tone.

"The truth is that when we started, I was against it, and I only played along due to external circumstances out of our control."

"Really?" Elly sounded like she had a hard time believing her, but then, after some reflection, she muttered, "Now that I think about it, you used to sulk a lot back then."

"I wasn't sulking, and it wasn't a lot, and even if it was, it was completely justified," she snapped at her, then she hurriedly added, "Never mind. My secret is that I only gave our relationship a less-than-three-point-seven-percent chance of working out, so I was prepared for it breaking down and us returning to a love-triangle at any moment. That, of course, included detailed anti-harem counter-measures against Elly, if the need arose."

"No way!" the princess exclaimed and lightly swiped at her shoulder. "You're pulling my leg!"

"I'm not."

"You're just trying to tease me, aren't you?"

"No, I'm entirely serious."

While my girlfriends bantered, Angie let out a tinkling giggle.

"Hehe. You guys are so cute! I'm happy it all worked out for ya!"

Despite her usual happy-go-lucky tone, Judy found her reaction to be inappropriate, because as soon as the vote was over (and in her favour), she pointed at the Celestial girl.

"Angie, your turn."

"Wha? Really?" She put down her empty skewers and crossed her arms. "So it's gotta something silly and embarrassing?"

Josh blurted out, "Where did the 'silly' bit come from?" but he was summarily ignored when Angie snapped her finger.

"Ah, Judy just reminded me of something! You say that you didn't have much faith in your poly-thingie, but I was totally rooting for you guys, and it looked super cute and wholesome from the outside, so it gave me this silly idea, and I asked Leo about how to get in on the action!" Her proclamation was followed by an especially long beat of awkward silence, and only when she noticed Judy's squint did she realise her paux pas and hastily added, "I mean, not with you guys, but with Josh!"

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Wait, what? You wanted to date another guy, too?"

Hearing her boyfriend's incredulous question made her roll her eyes, and she poked his side with a finger.

"No, you silly-weasel! I got that idea because you used to be such a Casanova-wannabe back then!"

"… Me? When?"

"Back then!" she insisted and gave him one last poke with a huff. "Do you have any idea how scared I was that you'd just start dating someone else one day?"

"If you were, you could've just told me you liked me earlier!"

"I did! I bunch of times!"

Before things could escalate into one of their customary lovers' quarrels, Judy raised a hand.

"I vote for accepting Angie's secret."

"A-Aye?" Snowy raised her hand in a hurry with a 'Am I doing this right?' kind of expression, and soon the others followed suit.

"Okay then, who's next?"

The borderline peevish Celestial perked up at once, and her eyes scanned the group. There weren't a whole lot of options left, and when her gaze met the class rep's, she vigorously shook her head and tried to hide under her blanket. It seemed like Angie would pick her anyway, but then she raised a finger at the sky, and as she let her hand down, she ended up pointing at her own nose instead.

"Deus! I choose you!"

Her eyes immediately switched to a deep honey-yellow. Her face slackened for a blink or two, followed by a furious glare at the finger in front of her.

"Girl! I never agreed to play your game!" She must've responded, but we couldn't hear their inner dialogue. I could only imagine the back and forth based on how her expression kept shifting from one extreme to another, until it ultimately settled in a defeated frown accompanied by a sigh. "Fine." She cleared her throat and continued in a more level and diplomatic tone. "Very well. I hold many great secrets of this world, but those are not what you youngsters are looking for. Let me search the recesses of my mind for a fitting confession…" She rubbed her chin and continued to muse for a while, then suddenly pointed at Josh. "Boy!"

"Y-Yes?"

"Listen to me, because I'm only going to tell you this once! Remember what happened that night, back during our leisurely time at the shores of Elysium?"

"… You have to be a bit more specific than that."

Deus's frown deepened, and she strongly emphasised, "I'm talking about that night."

Josh blinked a few times, but then some kind of revelation flickered in his eyes and he exclaimed, "Oh, riiight. I get it now!" followed by a considerably more subdued, "Erm… what of it?"

"It was me," Deus stated flatly, and while she tried to look superior, her face was still a bit flushed. Not as much as Josh's, and he was looking at her as if he had just seen a ghost.

"No way!"

"I told you I'm not going to repeat myself, Boy. That was my secret." She turned to the side, trying to look dignified while just 'coincidentally' avoiding eye contact with the guy. "Take it or leave it."

The awkward silence in the wake of that exchange was shorter than expected, because Snowy raised her hand again and asked, "Um… H-How do we judge that?"

"Yeah!" Penny backed her by bouncing on their bench with indignation. "If you don't share your secret, it doesn't count!"

"I did share it," Deus insisted.

"But we don't get it," Penny argued back and looked at Josh. "What was that about?"

"Nothing!" Josh responded maybe a bit too vehemently. "Let's… Let's just say that it didn't count, because Deus doesn't play, okay? I'll go next!"

"Wait, can you do that? Can you just skip like that?"

Elly's questions fell on deaf ears, especially when Josh desperately searched for a secret to overshadow whatever the heck Deus just said (I had some ideas, but I digress), his gaze ultimately landing on Snowy. The two stared at each other without uttering a single word, but it didn't mean there was no communication going on between the two.

The bend of her mouth said, 'What?'

Josh's eyebrow responded with, 'Can I?'

Snowy's startled eyes screamed, 'Are you serious?'

The guy's shrug answered, 'Might as well.'

Her frown ultimately settled on, 'It may be for the best.'

All of that happened in the span of about five seconds and culminated in Josh exhaling a theatrical sigh and telling everyone, "I had a crush on Lili."

Before he could get a word in, Penny leapt to her feet and stood between the two.

"You beast! Don't you already have a girlfriend!?"

"Had! Had! Past-tense!" the guy defended himself with his palms raised. "Calm down." Penny let out a huff but otherwise didn't move a muscle, so he started over. "As I said, I used to have a crush on Lili."

"Is that the secret?" Judy asked with a tone that said 'We already knew that', but Josh shook his head.

"No. Or, more like half of it." He sucked in a long breath in preparation. "You see, we dated for a while."

Wait, what?

"Wait, what?" Elly perfectly echoed my sentiment, and even Judy looked stunned for a moment.

However, none of that compared to Penny's reaction, who grabbed my other sister's shoulders and wailed, "Snowy, no! How could you!? You're too good for someone like him! How could you let your standards slip so low!?" She then paused and hastily glanced at Angie. "A-Awawa! N-No offence meant!"

The Celestial responded with a cheerful, "Some taken!" and a wide smile that conspicuously didn't touch her eyes. More importantly, Snowy finally managed to shake off my Knightly sister and get a word in.

"We… It wasn't for long. It was only a trial. To see if it could work out."

"Wait, hold your horses!" Ammy chimed in from under her blanket, looking especially flabbergasted. "How come none of us ever noticed?!"

"It's because we kept it a secret," Josh explained a tad sheepishly. "You know? Because of…"

He purposefully didn't finish his sentence, yet the words 'Leo', 'The Chief', and 'Brother' kept echoing around the campfire.

"So it was a tryout," Judy moved on, and she took out her phone at some point and started taking notes. "How long did it last?"

Josh and Snowy shared a glance, and he replied with, "About a week?"

"Six days," my sister clarified.

"Give or take." Josh shrugged again. "It was fun, but it turned out we weren't really compatible, so we decided not to force it and take it slow, and then…" He glanced at his girlfriend, who was still busy giving the stink-eye to Penny, and he awkwardly concluded with, "You know what happened."

"How far have you gone?" Judy continued to drill them with the detached professionalism of an undergrad student collecting data for their statistics thesis, and it made Josh flush again and Snowy fidget.

"We… held hands?" she admitted. "Oh, and we shared an apple pie, too."

"Was that all?" Judy inquired, and when both of them nodded, Penny let out a relieved breath.

"Oh, thank goodness! That's nothing!" She paused to beam at my other sister and exclaimed, "We held hands lots of times and ate lots of apple pies too! No wonder it didn't last! There's nothing romantic about those, right?"

… At times like this, if I squinted hard enough, I could almost understand why Judy's alleged 'shipping circle' saw something between my sisters, but I wanted to believe that Penny was just that socially inept and wasn't actively raising any flags.

More importantly, if Josh's goal was to divert attention away to Deus's 'confession', then he succeeded with flying colours, because the conversation quickly devolved into Judy and Elly questioning him about the whole trial-date business, while Penny and the class rep formed their own little bubble on the other bench, talking about what happened back then. Then there was Angie/Deus in the middle of it all, the unwitting instigator, the agent of chaos… happily roasting her next marshmallow like this had nothing to do with her at all.

To be perfectly honest though, I was also quite surprised by this development. I knew that Josh fancied Snowy, and for a while she seemed to be in the lead of the relationship race, but at one point the flame between those two just died off, and then the whole childhood-friend-romance trope happened, and it was kind of swept under the rug. That said, I did remember Josh mentioning to me that he liked Snowy, but they just 'didn't have enough in common', so maybe that was the result of this trial-relationship thing?

Which brought us back to the main question: just how did I miss that? Judy wasn't even exaggerating when she said it was a common trope; we should've been on the lookout for it! Now, granted, if Josh and Snowy were actively trying to hide it from us, and it only lasted for a week, then it could've flown under the radar, especially if it happened at a time when I was busy dealing with some bloody annoyance or scheming up a storm, but still… What else could I have missed like that?

Anyhow, after the initial buzz died down, it was time to continue the game, but before Josh could point at the mortified class rep…

"Wait." Snowy perked up and looked over her shoulder. "The wards just reacted. Someone's coming."

"Oh, thank Sophia…" She whispered, only to blink and then hurriedly murmur, "No, I wasn't calling you, Grimmy. It's just an idiom."

While that was going on, the rest all focused their attention on one of the roads leading into the clearing, and before long, a lone individual's outline came into view. The tall and slender figure, dressed in jeans and a loose dark blouse, continued to approach them without any guile or apprehension, and it wasn't until the moment the light of the campfire illuminated the newcomer's face that she spoke up.

"Buonasera. I hope I didn't make you wait for long."

The thick faux-Italian accent was a dead giveaway, but to be clear, it was Corbeau Kishar, Abyssal agent, alleged phantom thief, and House Nergal's liaison. That last bit should've raised some alarms, but both she and the gang remained nonchalant. Even weirder was how the beach blonde woman reached into her cleavage and produced a small black case. She flipped it open and casually took out a thin white cigarette.

"Does any of you have a light?"

Before anyone could offer assistance (not that they were champing at the bit to do so, to begin with), Corbeau's whole body exuded a thick red haze. In the blink of an eye, it coalesced into another familiar figure, and she unceremoniously snatched the cigarette out of the other woman's hand and threw it into the fire.

"We don't have time for this," the black-clad lady, her piercing red eyes glowing like a pair of jewels in the firelight, continued to glare at Corbeau until she put her little case of smokes aside, and only then did she turn to the ever-so-slightly flummoxed group on the benches. "My apologies. This is the first time I've shared company with many of you, but I'm afraid proper introductions have to wait. Time is of the essence. Please, follow me."

That was the group's first encounter with Fidèle Basmu Shamash in the flesh, and I couldn't help but wonder where she was taking them in such a hurry. Probably not for some late-night birdwatching, but other than that, all bets were off.

Part 3

"We're almost there. Don't fall behind."

Hearing the Shamash matriarch's warning, the rest of the group hastened their steps to catch up to her. Fidèle's presence made the whole group look peculiar, leading the procession through the woods in her fancy black dress and matching parasol in the middle of the night. Not that there was anyone else to watch them (other than me, that is), yet the gang must've subconsciously recognised the weirdness of the situation, because they looked more perplexed than anything else.

It was only after they reached their destination and came to a halt at a completely inconspicuous spot at the bottom of a forested valley that tensions began to rise a bit, and Josh in particular kept eyeing the other Abyssal woman at the back of the group. His attention couldn't linger for long though, as suddenly the whole world flashed in photo-negative colours before settling into familiar purple hues.

The shift in the scenery also brought a slowly unfolding, swirling disk of colourless magical light into view. Nobody else reacted to it, so it was clearly a portal-in-potentia that hasn't fully manifested yet.

"Good. There's still some time left before the gateway fully opens." Fidèle confirmed my suspicion and turned to the group. "The situation may develop in unexpected directions once you're on the other side, so if you have any questions, ask them now."

Her candid tone, nothing like the amicable demeanour she showed me during our meeting, took the gang aback, though not for long.

"What do you mean by 'unexpected directions'?" Ammy spoke up first, and while she was trying to sound self-assured, she was bad with strangers as usual and was partially hiding behind Elly's back.

"It is exactly as it sounds," she responded frankly and made a vague gesture towards the still-growing portal-in-the-making. "Paranoia's been running rampant in the Noble Alliance ever since the betrayal of House Nergal, so the only way I could secure an entryway for you was by requesting a gate for myself. There's no telling how the other Houses may react if you arrive in my stead, and there's only so much protection House Shamash can provide without my presence, so you have to be prepared to react as the situation demands."

"You're not coming with us," Judy stated, instead of asking, as she often did, and Fidèle nodded in the affirmative, with an eye on Snowy.

"I'm certain you're already familiar with the limitations of gateways we use to traverse to and fro the Abyss. The one you'll be using is tuned for me, so if I entered with you, it would destabilize the passage, which could lead to disastrous consequences."

Hearing that made Penny audibly gulp in the back.

Meanwhile, Fidèle lightly twirled her parasol and added, "I have informed my inner circle about your arrival, but the rest of House Shamash, let alone the liaisons from the other Houses, may not show proper hospitality. If anyone doubts you, show them my personal token."

Before anyone could ask, 'What token?', she sent a meaningful glance at the other woman idling behind the group. Corbeau stifled a groan and came to the front, and after reaching into her cleavage again (seriously, did she have some kind of pocket-space there?), she produced a palm-sized brass shield bearing an embossed family crest depicting a simple sceptre with a large ring attached to it floating over the depiction of a fancy throne.

"Here it is. Who's going to hold onto it?"

"That'll be me, I guess," Josh volunteered, so Corbeau tossed the emblem over to him without any fanfare.

"You can use my name and this token to avoid scrutiny, and I recommend you keep your identities a secret until I can join you. It will be safer for you that way. However, if you ever feel threatened, you should flee, or if necessary, fight without second thought. Do not worry about the consequences; I shall bear them for you, and resolve everything upon my arrival."

"That is… very generous of you, Lady Shamash," Snowy spoke up, and when she glanced at her, the Abyssal woman's expression eased up a little for the first time since she appeared tonight.

"It is the least I could do," she responded with a slight tremble in her voice, followed by a shallow sigh. "I was the one who convinced Polemos to intervene in our civil war, and I was not only unable to protect him when the Nergals stabbed us all in the back, but he was the one who stayed behind to ensure my escape. That is a debt not easily repaid, and so I'm obligated to provide you with all the support I can until Polemos is freed from captivity. This, I swear on the name of House Shamash."

There was a long beat of silence in the wake of her declaration. Josh, in particular, looked like he didn't quite get the significance (or care for the ceremoniousness) of her words, and was more focused on the token in his hands. Even that didn't last for long though, as his gaze soon shifted to the blonde Abyssal woman by his side, and he raised a critical brow at her.

"I understand why you're helping us, but what about her?"

Corbeau was momentarily taken aback by the question, but then she let out a throaty chuckle.

"You're less naïve than you look, boy."

"Hey! Who permitted you to address our Boy so informally?!" Deus flared up without warning, only to quickly calm down when Judy put a hand on her shoulder. She still defiantly crossed her arms and declared, "Besides, his question is a valid one! Were you not part of the conspiracy that saw Polemos captured?" Suddenly her eyes turned blue, though it was hard to see it due to the poor lighting conditions, and Angie added, "Yeah! I wanted to ask since forever, but nobody spoke up!"

"What… was that?" Corbeau blurted out in surprise over the sudden change in the friendly neighbourhood Celestial's tone and mannerism, but Josh shook his head.

"Don't mind that, and answer the question."

The rest of the group nodded along, though only Penny seemed to be in full-breasted support of the childhood friend duo. Snowy was still focused on Fidèle and was looking at her kind of like as if she had just met her childhood hero or something, while Judy and Elly…

"Is this a trope?"

"Maybe, it depends on her answer."

"No, I mean, her being here in general. What was it called again…? Hell-Face Turn?"

"It's 'Heel-Face Turn', and again, we can't know until she answers."

"… I don't get it."

…

The two of them were acting like flies on the wall and taking notes, while Ammy was trying to listen in on them and make heads or tails of their hushed conversation.

Meanwhile, Corbeau let out a sound that had a curious mixture of a scoff and a chuckle and retrieved her cigarette case again. She pulled out another smoke and then presented the tip to Josh.

"Give me some fire, and I'll tell you."

Before the guy could respond, the class rep suddenly broke away from my girlfriends and skipped over to the main group. She raised her hand, palm pointing upwards, and after hastily sputtering a faux-Latin chant, she thrust it between Josh and Corbeau. A moment later, the whole group was bathed in warm orange light as a baseball-sized globe of vigorously dancing flame popped into existence over her palm, and she exclaimed, "Please, let me!"

The Abyssal Seducer eyed her for a moment, then muttered something about 'A gaggle of weirdoes,' under her breath before sticking the tip of her cigarette into the flame. She closed her eyes, took a big puff, and her whole body language grew languid at once.

When she opened her eyes again, she looked at Josh directly and uttered a single word.

"Revenge."

"… For what?" Penny asked, looking genuinely taken aback by her answer.

Corbeau sent her a flat glance. "Now what. Whom," she corrected her, then took another drag from her cigarette. Since Ammy was still maintaining her fireball, the flickering orange light gave the Abyssal woman a strange, almost ephemeral atmosphere, and for once, she actually felt like one of those classic Femme Fatales. A long beat later, she exhaled a stream of white smoke and explained, "Tracas was a mean bastard, unreliable, and a compulsive gambler, but he was a friend. He didn't deserve to go out like that."

That was it. That was her whole motivation, yet her tone and the forlorn expression on her face made it sound profound. It also made my stomach churn as I recalled the moment the man's lifeless body hit the ground, and then my head started to hurt as I considered whether this outcome was part of future-me's machinations.

Before I could fall too deep into that train of thought, Fidèle let out a low hum and twirled her parasol again, drawing everyone's attention to her.

"I believe the gateway is about to manifest at any moment. I reckon you should prepare yourself."

No sooner had she said that, the churning portal near her began to expand, and based on the steadily growing shadows of the group, its light was entering the visible spectrum. Seeing that, Josh stepped up and turned to face the others.

"Okay, guys. Just to be safe, we're gonna pair up."

"On it!" Penny exclaimed and entwined her arm with Snowy's. "This way, we can't get accidentally separated!"

"Passing through the gateway only takes a few seconds," my Abyssal sister pointed out, but my other sis remained adamant.

"I promised Mom and Dad to be super-careful, so it's better to be safe than sorry. O-Of course they didn't know we were going to do this, but… You know? It's the principle that counts!"

Emboldened by my sisters, Elly also linked arms with Judy, much to my dear assistant's mild disapproval, and since Josh would naturally pair up with Angie…

"W-Wait! What about me?" the class rep called out in alarm, and she hastily snuffed out the fireball she was still holding over her palm. "I have nobody to pair up with!"

"How about you hold onto the back of someone's clothes?" Judy advised, and Elly followed her up at once.

"Or someone's backpack! That could work, too!"

"I still don't think any of this is necessary, but if it makes you feel better… um… You can hold onto me," Snowy proposed, and while they were busy figuring out the logistics of that, the portal stopped expanding and its outlines were becoming more defined by the second.

It was… a bit on the smaller size. At least compared to the ones I'd seen so far, though to be fair, I had a fairly small set of data points to judge these things. It was about half the size of the portal I used to officially enter the Abyss, and that was already a third smaller than the big one from the time of the school incident with Crowy and the Chimera.

On second thought, it made sense, I supposed. Those were made for multiple people in mind, while this was for just the Shamash matriarch. Even if we accounted for some 'overengineering' for the sake of safety, it still felt a little iffy… but I was sure they accounted for that. Or at least I hoped so.

In the meantime, the gang stepped up to the gateway. Josh and Angie at the front, then my girlfriends, followed by my sisters, and then the class rep at the end, holding onto their backpacks with both hands.

"Uhh… I know this was my plan, but I'm having second thoughts."

"Come on Ammy! Don't get cold feet now!" Angie called out to her over her shoulder and flashed a reassuring smile. "Everything's gonna be all right!"

The Shamash matriarch slightly inclined her head towards the group and said, "I wish you the best of luck," in a soft voice. "I shall follow after you as soon as possible, but if an opportunity presents itself, or you find yourself in danger, don't wait for me and act at your own discretion."

It was obvious that Josh wanted to give a nice, uplifting reply, but he took too long to think of one, so it was Snowy who responded first.

"Thank you for all your support, Lady Shamash." She bowed a bit, dragging Penny along. "We'll make sure to prove that your confidence wasn't misplaced."

Fidèle returned the gesture with a simple curtsy and a mysterious smile, as if amused by my sister's earnest words, then gestured towards the gateway. However, before they could get moving, an unexpected voice chimed in from the rear.

"Good luck, you lot, and if you encounter Noir Inanna, make sure to give him hell."

Corbeau's aggressive encouragement eased some of the tension in the air, and Josh went as far as to flash a devil-may-care grin and give him a thumbs up.

"Sure thing! I've got some unresolved grudges with the guy, so I was gonna punch the daylight out of him anyway."

Now it was Corbeau's turn to smile, if ever so wryly, and she flicked the stub of her cigarette away with a quiet, "You better," displaying an absolutely appalling lack of forest fire safety. If Critias had a forestry bear mascot, it would've been shedding a single disappointed tear at this point.

More importantly, now that neither of the Abyssal women had anything else to add, Josh and co turned to face the portal, closed ranks, and at the mark of the guy at the front, they all marched through the threshold of the gateway, and I… remained in the forest.

I learned from past experience and shifted my anchor mark to Corbeau. It wasn't because I was suspicious of them, but because the last time I entered one of these gateways, I ended up effectively magically flash-banging myself. I didn't want to go through that again, so I decided to linger behind and then shift my point of view over to Josh once I was sure they had already arrived at their destination.

The fact that it also let me catch a snippet of an intriguing conversation was just the cherry on top.

"With all due respect, Lady Shamash, do you really believe these kids are going to make a difference?" Corbeau asked out of the blue.

Fidèle twirled her parasol again, which made me think it might've been a nervous tic, and she flashed an inscrutable smile at the other woman.

"I have full confidence in these children's capabilities, but even if they fail at their rescue operation… one way or the other, their presence in the Abyss is bound to shatter the status quo."

"But is it going to be in your favor?"

"Maybe not," the Shamas matriarch said with a careless shrug. "But sometimes, it is better to trust one's instincts and believe that everything will turn out just fine."

"The last person who told me something similar had his neck snapped for his trouble," Corbeau replied flatly and turned on her heels. "We're done here. I'm leaving."

The other woman didn't say a word, but then the outlines of the body blurred and she rapidly sublimated into a familiar cloud of black smoke with an orange-red core. The ball of haze circled around Corbeau, then collided with her back and disappeared, causing the woman to tense up.

"Ugh… I can never get used to this…" she grumbled as she circled her shoulders, then reached for another cigarette, only for her hand to stop mid-motion, then twitch and fling it into the undergrowth. "Stop that. It's my body, and I need it."

Still grumbling, she made a couple of gestures with her free hand to open a smaller portal, and the Abyssal Seducer (plus her voluntary possessor) left the Purple Zone. I could feel my point of view being dragged along with them, but I could already see the edges of the gateway wavering, so I stopped lingering here and Far Glanced at my girlfriends… only to nearly jump out of my bed in surprise.

"Uuu… This expedition is not off to a good start…" Elly whined, and it took me a while to reorient myself and recognise what I was looking at.

My draconic girlfriend was holding my dear assistant in a bridal carry, and they were both hanging from a large branch about ten meters off the ground, held aloft by the straps of Elly's backpack and gently dangling under the cloudless sky populated with red-tinted fake stars. More alarmingly, I couldn't see the rest of the gang anywhere, and when I looked for their marks…

"Well, crap. I hope I wasn't the one who jinxed things this time…"

Part 4

"Here you go! I told you it would work!" the princess exclaimed as she let my slightly rattled assistant down and immediately turned around. "I'll go get my bag!"

She didn't even give Judy an opportunity to collect herself and just started climbing the tree next to them with the agility of an unusually blonde squirrel. Long story short, after getting stuck up in a tree by the straps of her backpack, Elly slipped out of it and used her draconic physique to bear the brunt of the impact of their fall.

Meanwhile, Judy looked around in the dark forest and set her back against the same tree, wary of any potential attackers. There were none that I could see from my vantage point, but she didn't know that, and after a minute or so, Elly landed next to her again, this time holding her backpack. She looked pretty proud of herself, but it didn't last long.

"Where are we?" she asked, looking left and right. "And where are the others?"

"I don't know. I need to check. Please be on the lookout."

"Got it!"

Elly put her back down at Judy's feet and raised her fists, as if daring anyone to come and pick a fight with her. There was nobody else there, but she didn't seem to care. It was probably due to the adrenaline rush.

Meanwhile, Judy also put down her bag and began rummaging through its innards. Before long, she produced a small case wrapped in a thick towel (most likely for extra padding), and from it, she produced a familiar pair of star-shaped glasses.

That made me lurch up on the bed. I forgot to consider this at the time, but since I modded the transmission components of my Leoformer to work through the dimensional gap, would I be able to make contact with Judy's communication artifact from this distance? Off the cuff, I gave it a fifty-fifty chance of it working, especially since I was at the bottom of this anti-magic dungeon, but it couldn't hurt to try. At worst, I figured I might just have to give it another try upstairs.

With that in mind, I activated my Leoformer, switched to my school uniform, and put two fingers near my ears.

"Dormouse? Can you hear me?"

I've got no response on the line, so I Far Glanced over, just to me sure, only to catch my dear assistant raise a finger at Elly.

"Hush. I think I just heard the Chief." She turned left and right while fidgeting with her glasses, looking kind of like one of those phone users from those old commercials going 'Can you hear me now?', before coming to a sudden halt. "I'm getting a grainy image. Chief, can you hear me?"

Oddly enough, there was nothing on my end, and it only took me a second to come to a plausible explanation: while I powered up the transmitter of my Leoformer, I never bothered to do the same with the receiver, and so while I could send a magical 'signal' out, the dungeon's mana syphon effect made it impossible to receive the 'signal' sent by Judy's artifact in return.

It didn't really matter thanks to my Far Sight, so I responded with a loud and clear, "Yes, Dormouse, I can hear you. How's the reception on your end?"

"It is the Chief," Judy whispered over to Elly, then continued with a normal volume, "There's some static, but I can hear you and see a grainy image. Where are you?"

"Still at the bottom of the Chasm of Desolation. More importantly, what happened to you guys? I looked away for just a minute, and then you were suddenly hanging from a branch."

"We're not sure either. We stepped into the gate, but then everything started shaking, and we were suddenly in the air." She paused to look around. "Can you tell me where the others are?"

"Sure, just give me a second, and—"

"Uncle Polemos? Who are you talking to?"

Blinking, I turned towards the hallway outside the bars, where Ollie was curiously peeking into my cell.

"Don't mind me, Beansprout. I'm in a call with someone." I tapped on my ear to indicate that I was using a communicator, but he didn't get it. "I'm talking to an… erm… Auntie?"

His face lit up, and he pattered into my cell with eyes full of wonder.

"Is she the Aunty Judy you talked about? Or Aunty Elly?"

"The former, and…" It was only at this point that I remembered that I couldn't hear Judy unless I was Far Glancing at her, so I closed my eyes and uttered a curt, "Wait a second."

My point of view reappeared in the woods, just in time to hear Judy say, "Is that Éolienne Serua Ashur with you?"

"No, it's…" I started reflexively, only for me to belatedly realise that was Ollie's full name, and hastily amend, "Yes. Yes, it's him."

"Can Aunty Judy hear me?" came the next innocent question from the kid, forcing me to return to my body and glance at him again.

"Yes. She can see you too, through my eyes."

"Really?" Ollie's eyes opened wide, and he hurriedly combed his hair with his fingers and straightened his pyjamas. Once he deemed himself in a presentable state, he waved and flashed a ridiculously endearing grin at me. "Hi, Aunty Judy! Uncle Polemos talked a lot about you! I hope we can meet in person soon! I'll… um…" Suddenly uncertain, he glanced back at his cell, and then his expression lit up again. "I'll show you the LAGO ninja pirate robot I built! I-It's not finished yet, but it's going to be really cool, I promise!"

My immediate reaction was 'Wait, where did the ninja part come from?', but I bottled that up and responded with a level, "I'm sure she'll like it, but I really need to talk with her right now."

"O-Oh, okay. Bye, Aunty Judy!"

Ollie waved at me again and hastily returned to his cell at the other end of the hallway. In the meantime, I exhaled a long breath and then sent my point of view hurtling across the Abyss and back to the dark forest.

"Sorry, I'm back. I can hear you now," I told her, but Judy remained oddly silent at first.

"Chief?"

"Yes?"

"Was that adorable creature Éolienne Serua Ashur?"

"… Yes. I thought we already established that."

She didn't react to my disparaging comment, and instead she stated, "The heir apparent of House Ashur?"

"… Once again, yes."

"The one without any living direct blood relatives."

"… Okay, I bite. Where are you going with this?"

Judy didn't reply right away, but instead she pulled the communicator glasses down and sent a provocative look right ahead. It wasn't exactly accurate, but it was obvious that it was meant for me. "We skipped the Celestial twins, but that kid's getting adopted, and I refuse to hear any arguments to the contrary."

Her declaration was followed by a silent beat, then she unceremoniously pushed her glasses up her nose again.

"But that's for later. Can you tell me where the others are?"

I was glad to see that she was back to business-mode so fast, so before any other side-tracks could manifest, I told her, "Sure. In the meantime, tell Elly that I said hi, and that the way she got you off the three was really cool."

Judy nodded, and I immediately shifted my point of view again. It didn't take long to find the rest of the gang, though some of them landed in a rather… unexpected situation. Before long, I was back with my girlfriends again.

"Snowy and Penny are about five hundred meters to your left, and they're slowly heading your way. Josh and Angie are closer, about two hundred meters in the other direction, but they're heading the opposite way, so I recommend you contact them first and give them directions."

"Roger. What about Amelia?"

"The class rep is safe, but… Let's gather everyone else first, and then I'll tell you the details."

While clearly not one hundred percent satisfied with my response, Judy whispered a quiet, "On it," and tapped her glasses.

"Hey, Leo? Are you Far Seeing us right now? Was I really cool?" the princess asked on the side with a smug little smirk on her lips, but she soon fell silent as Judy contacted Angie first, and then Snowy. After only about ten minutes, the three groups converged at one location, with my sisters arriving first.

"Ah, there they are!" Penny declared from up high, dangling from my Abyssal sister's arms while the latter was flying above the treeline. They made a full circle in the air, and after finding the right approach, they landed not far from where Elly was standing. "See? I told you flying was a good idea! Nobody would notice us in the dark!"

"We can only say that in retrospect," Snowy argued back a bit half-heartedly, but then she stopped and pointed to her left. "Is that Josh and Angie?"

She was right on the money, and after just a few more seconds, the resident protagonist and his grumpy girlfriend arrived on foot.

"Man, it would've been so much easier if we could fly too…" Angie groaned even as she hopped over a gnarled root sticking out of the ground.

"I told you I couldn't be helped. Our wings would draw a lot of attention down here," Josh argued back as he also stepped over the same root and then raised his hand over his head. "Is everyone here?"

"Amelia's still missing," Judy noted flatly. "I'm trying to get the Chief to tell me where she is."

"Wait! You can talk to Leo again?" Angie perked up at once and skipped over to my lovely assistant's side. "Is he close by?"

"No, he's still in prison. I think," Elly answered in her stead.

"Aw. I thought we're gonna get this whole trip over with right away…"

"More importantly," Josh cut in by pulling his girlfriend aside. "Does that mean we're officially in the Abyss?"

"Aren't we?" Penny blurted out, sounding just a bit alarmed. "I-I mean, we didn't arrive in a castle, like the vampire lady said, but this place looks pretty Abyss-y to me."

This time it was Josh's turn to blurt out a startled, "How? These woods look exactly the same as the place where we came from!"

"Idunno," Angie chimed in before my sister could respond, and she waved her free hand (the one that wasn't clasped on Josh's arm) around a bit. "I kinda agree. This place does have some Abyss-y vibes, you know?"

"What does that even mean?" Elly spoke up next, looking just a tad confused. "I don't feel anything different."

"Same here," came the next observation from Josh, and while the gang continued to discuss the alleged Abyssy-ness of the Abyss, Judy impatiently tapped on her artifact to get my attention.

"Everyone's here now, Chief. Are you ready to tell us where to find Amelia?"

"Yeah. I just wanted to make sure you were all in one place and there wouldn't be any misunderstandings." I Far Glanced at Ammy's location again, just to be safe, then back to Judy. "Yep, she's still there."

"Where?"

"Patience, Dormouse. I'll guide you there. First turn to your left." She did as instructed. "A bit more, until you're facing that rock over there."

"I see it."

"Great. Head in that direction, up that hill. Past that, there's a shallow valley with a village at its bottom. That's where you'll find the class rep."

My words made Judy twitch, and she whispered, "Was she captured?"

Despite her efforts, Penny overheard her anyway and exclaimed, "Captured? Who was captured? Did something happen to Amelia?"

I stifled a groan and hurriedly said, "Tell her she wasn't."

"She wasn't," Judy repeated after me.

"I'll guide you guys to her, but first, tell everyone to stay calm and try to be as inconspicuous as possible."

Judy nodded and turned to Penny, "The Chief is telling you to be calm and inconspicuous."

I originally meant that for the whole group… but I couldn't exactly argue with that either.

In any case, once I gave my initial instructions, everyone picked up their bags, formed an orderly line, and began their trek through the dark woods. The underbrush wasn't exactly easy to navigate, but Penny and Elly worked in tandem to clear out any obstacles, so after about a quarter of an hour, the whole group made their way up to the top of the hill. From there, they could already see the lights of the settlement below, and after another fifteen minutes or so, they made it to its outskirts.

It was a rather rustic community; dirt roads and wooden buildings, without any utility poles or public lighting in sight. I had a feeling it was supposed to be one of those pastoral old villages, but as always, all the houses looked like they were built just a few short weeks ago. More importantly, the fringes of the settlement were completely silent at this time of night, with everybody sleeping, so there was no one to notice the group of teens dressed for hiking cautiously inching down the main road.

The same could not be said about the center. The whole village seemed to be built around the square in the middle, and one place in particular was audibly lively despite the hour.

"Are you sure she's there?" Josh asked a tad incredulously.

"Chief?"

Since Judy reinforced the question, I felt obligated to say, "Yes, she is."

"This place kinda looks like a tavern, doesn't it?" Angie mused while studying the sign hanging over the large wooden double doors leading into the building.

"Sounds like one, too," Elly added on.

"There's no point just standing around like this." Josh stepped up to the doors and glanced over his shoulder, "If Leo says she's here, then she must be. I'll take point, you cover me."

"The Chief also said not be act suspiciously," my dear assistant pointed out, and it made the guy stop in his tracks for a second or five.

"In that case… Cover my back very naturally?"

"I'm on it!" Penny declared and hefted her zweihander.

"P-Penny! Waving a sword around is really, really suspicious!" Snowy hissed at her, and so she hurriedly holstered her weapon with a quiet 'Awawa!'.

Meanwhile, Josh steeled his nerves, grabbed hold of the door handle, and…

"Oy! We have more guests!" a rowdy voice sounded out from the inside before the door was even halfway opened.

"Already? It's been ages since we had so many newcomers!" the voice of a woman responded, and by this time, Josh and company could take a better look at the insides of the building.

Let's not mince words here: it looked just like a medieval-style tavern right off the pages of a tabletop RPG rulebook's cover. It had the wooden tables, the hanging lanterns, the bar with rows of large ale barrels behind it, and even a rotund, moustachioed tavern-keeper in tow, wearing a brown apron over a near-white shirt and dark pants.

More importantly, there was a soft 'Ah!' coming from the back of the room, and a slender hand reached up towards the ceiling.

"Guys! Everyone! Over here!"

"Hah? Are they your friends, little Missy?" I soft baritone asked next, and the class rep, sitting on a stool at the end of the counter and being surrounded by a whole gaggle of middle-aged and elderly Abyssals, hesitantly nodded. In response, the balding man on her left let out a good-natured guffaw and waved at the stumped group in the doorway. "The more the merrier, I say! Come in, don't be shy!"

Josh glanced over his shoulder, and after sharing some non-verbal back-and-forth with the group, he straightened his back, squared his shoulders, and led them into the tavern. Ammy remained sitting, and she had a half-empty mug in her hands, plus a whole gamut of nuts, small pastries, and other snacks piled up in front of her. Combined with the affectionate gazes of the people surrounding her, it was easy to see that she was treated well by the locals.

It didn't stop Josh from asking, "Are you all right?" as soon as he reached her side, and the class rep quickly nodded.

"Yes, I'm fine. I was… erm…" She glanced around and then whispered, "I appeared in the square."

"Fell, you mean, my dear?" One of the older women let out an amused chuckle. "My, you can hardly imagine how surprising it was to hear a scream like that in the middle of the night, I tell you!"

Ammy's ears turned red, so another woman poked the first one with her elbow and told her, "Don't listen to her! We're quite used to this kind of thing, you know?"

"People screaming?" Josh blurted out, and after a long beat, everyone within earshot laughed out in unison.

"No, lad! People falling from the sky!" the tavern keeper told him between guffaws, and then slapped the countertop to quiet the peanut gallery. "More importantly, was this all of you? Was there no adult with you?"

Angie looked like she wanted to say something, but Elly reflexively shook her head, so she didn't have the opportunity to speak up, especially when the man twirled his moustache with a loud hum.

"Ha. That's strange. Noble Scions rarely travel without retinue like that, but…" He stopped short and then shook his head. "Never mind! Let's just be thankful that all of you are fine! Come, sit down, and I'll whip you up something warm to drink!"

"Right, right!" another jovial Abyssal was already pulling some chairs over and setting them next to the class rep's. "You must've had quite a fright, but it's all right now." He then turned to the man behind the counter. "Hey, Bedaine? Do you have enough rooms for them to stay over?"

"If they sleep in pairs, sure," the moustachioed guy responded off-handedly, already in the process of brewing something in the back.

"If you need it, I have a free room back home," one of the elderly women proposed, and the class rep hastily shook her head.

"T-Thank you, truly, but we're fine, I think. I told you we're not planning to stay."

"Nonsense! It's the middle of the night! You need a roof over your head, I tell you!"

"That's right, Missy!" The man from before chuckled and patted her on the back. "We told you that we take care of each other around these parts! It's no problem, no problem at all!" He glanced over and gestured at the rest of the gang. "Come on, kids! Don't just stand around all awkward-like! Sit down and make yourselves at home!"

Seeing that the class rep was fine and the locals were friendly lowered the group's guard a bit, but not completely, and Josh turned to the rest with a troubled frown.

"What do you guys think?"

"Let's just go with the flow and ask around," Judy proposed before anyone else could speak up, and the rest quickly agreed with her.

"They don't seem to be bad people," Snowy noted, and Penny repeatedly nodded along.

"All right then," Josh concluded and turned to face the expectant gazes of the people gathered around Ammy. "In that case, thank you for the hospitality."

"Haha! Don't even mention it, lad!" The tavern keeper walked over and placed six identical mugs onto the counter with a grin that said he was expecting that they would be seeing each other a lot, and he loudly proclaimed, "Let me officially welcome you to Coepi Urbs! I hope you'll enjoy your stay!"