Overheat

Execute Program 22-RG

Catastrophe

The bathroom of the Celestia was overcrowded that morning, filled with beauties full of regret. Alcohol was a friend, but it was the type of friend that left early in the morning, leaving all the clean-up to others. And they had to clean up a lot. Having two guilds worth of drunkards on board had taken quite the toll on the ship. While the amount of spilled puke, outside of the bathroom, was insignificant, there was a lot of groaning and complaining. Rei was on deck, an ice pack on her forehead. Plutia was accompanying her, gently rubbing the woman's back. It had been Rei's first experience with alcohol and now she was experiencing her first hang over. And what a hang over it was. The front of her head was on fire, while the back felt like someone was crushing her skull. A violent puking session had already taken place, complete with Plutia rubbing her hack, just like she did now.

Those who could handle their alcohol a little better were cleaning up after the party that had escalated terribly. Meanwhile, Cave, Jene and Lid were having a small chat with Vert in the lowest deck of the ship, far away from prying ears. Cave didn't really know how to properly act around Vert, now that the party was over. Until mere weeks ago, Vert had been the highest authority she served, for whom she killed and tortured. Thinking about Nisa, who was back on the ship of Makers and felt unbelievably sick, Cave lived with a constant remainder of what war made people do.

"You said you have a job for us." Lid was all ears about this. Temporary unemployment was looming in the distance, not just for her but everyone in her group.

"I want you to enlist in the Leanbox military. I do not trust Zelena with my country just yet." Vert didn't even make any attempts to pull her punches. "She used to rule Leanbox but times have changed. Technology has changed. And so has the political climate."

"Be your eyes and ears, is that it?" Lid was disappointed and it showed on her face plain as day. "Surveillance is not really our thing, least not as a group."

Cave felt conflicted. Vert was the one she had sworn loyalty to, but Leanbox was ruled by her predecessor now. Who did she really answer to? Was it Leanbox? Or Vert? Before she made any decision, she needed to talk with Zelena about the future of the special forces program, now that another war was highly improbable.

"Nobody else is qualified to stop Zelena by force if she takes my nation down the wrong path. With Histoire as our ally, we have the option to put me back in control of Leanbox should the situation call for it." Vert didn't really mind leaving Zelena to rule Leanbox but only if she did an adequate job at it. It was true that it was Zelena and her people who founded Leanbox in the first place, but that had been over a thousand years ago. "I am worried about her capacity to adapt to this new situation. Leanbox has taken a large economic hit from the war and I worry she won't know how to solve this issue."

"Where is Lady Zelena? I haven't seen her all morning." Cave found it odd that she would skip the party entirely. "I haven't seen Lady Chika either." Chika was still her boss, too, so she had to be respectful towards her even if she wasn't around.

"You should put one and one together. If both of them didn't come back, they obviously enjoyed some time as a couple. I imagine it is difficult to find some private time on board this ship." Jene suggested that those two were simply being love birds. It was, for her, the most logical conclusion.

Vert couldn't suppress an annoyed look but quickly recovered her normal, pleasant face. "That may well be the case. I for one am not afraid of showing my affection for Blanc in public."

"I believe Blanc thinks of that as harassment." Lid just didn't work well with being overly polite. Noire was one thing, she ruled the entire underworld, but a goddess didn't quite demand the same type of respect. Respect, yes, but not enough to call her by a title. "Anyway. What exactly do you have in mind? Just being in the military won't allow us to shadow her."

"Not officially. But being in the army will give you a wide range of access. Given your… talents, you should receive a position in the special forces. Cave, as someone from the special forces, I want you to pave the way for this to work. I trust you are still loyal to me, to the good of Leanbox?"

Cave didn't answer right away, which caused Lid to step in. "Give her time to think about this. It isn't easy to pick between employer and patriotism." A few seconds passed before the hardened mercenary continued. "It's actually even more complicated than that in this case, but my point stands. But you didn't really think this through. If Cave places her loyalty with Zelena, she will just inform her of our surveillance act. She isn't part of my team."

"If I decide that my loyalty lies with Leanbox itself and not Lady Vert, I will take my formal leave from the special forces and go live somewhere quiet with Nisa." Cave was expecting that to happen a few years from now regardless. "The special forces are specialized in war time operations. Capture of spies. Torture. Assassination. Terrorism in enemy territory. There is nothing we won't do to ensure the survival of Leanbox. With the war gone and the political climate about to change, we will lose our reason to exist. Lady Chika will likely disband us in the near future." Cave had other skills she could put to use. There were many ways to serve Leanbox. "I might actually speak to Lady Noire and request to act as a liaison between the dark world and Leanbox, now that we know of its existence."

"I wish people would make up their mind whether it's the dark world, the graveyard, Pyraba, or whatever the fuck they call it. Same thing with Lady Noire." Lid was fully aware that those were all synonyms of each other, but still it bothered her. Was a standardized title, or name, really that much to ask for?

"It appears we are getting a little side tracked..." Vert didn't really have much else to say. "Think about my offer, Lid. Speak to your girls about it. I need to go and round up my guild members, there are quests to be completed and bosses to be killed." Vert had a blissful look of high expectations on her face when she left Lid, Cave and Jene behind.

"There won't be peace." Jene said so after she was sure that Vert was gone. "They might all get along in here, but that is because they are free of expectation, duty and trouble. It might not happen the moment we return to reality but territorial disputes, economic challenges and most of all, the aftermath of the war that will be plain to see for all, all of those will make it impossible for lasting peace to form. Leanbox and Lowee might believe themselves bound by their candidates but did that stop Lastation and Planeptune, whose candidates were close before, to go to war? A goddess answers to her people still. If she attempts to rule without their approval, her shares will fall, the nation will suffer and soon, she will be replaced."

"I agree." Lid didn't want to say these things right in front of the goddesses but she shared Jene's view. "Statistically, there had to have been goddesses that were close before. They were eventually replaced or the bond did not last. People have received a much needed breather within this world, but this very pause is going to make them so much more likely to view their old world with disdain and disappointment. That will turn to hatred, and there is plenty of people to pin blame on. The goddesses are so desperate for peace that they're ignoring reality and playing family in here."

Cave had done many a terrible thing during the war. Torturing Nisa was just one of them. And yet she felt genuinely scared of those two. There was not even a hint of doubt or compassion in the voices of Lid and Jene. They were soldiers through and through. Mercenaries, selling their considerable expertise to the highest bidder. I never want to have them as my enemies. Cave was sure she wouldn't get away unscathed from an encounter like that. They couldn't win against an army, but for how small a force they were, Cave didn't doubt their ability to wreak havoc on their enemies with absolute precision and devastating results.

"I can tell what you're thinking from the way you're looking at us. Don't worry, we're not going to forcibly start a war. But if one does start, anyone will be fair game. We live to fight and party." Lid tensed up for a moment and seized up Cave, who immediately went into a serious stance. "I can tell you're strong. But let me warn you. If the Black Devotion is coming for your country, no amount of loyalty or patriotism will save you. Right now I consider you one of us, and that will not change when we leave. That's why I am telling you this. If…, no, when another war breaks out, and we meet on the battlefield, we won't see you. The woman called Cave will be a ghost on the battlefield, and of course we don't believe in ghosts."

"That's her way of telling you that if we meet as enemies, put down your weapons, retreat and we won't give chase. You might be strong, as strong as some of us, but you can't handle multiple of us on your own. Live and fight another day. We cannot be everywhere so pick your battlefield." Jene didn't want to see harm come to Cave, if it could be avoided.

"You're really convinced that there won't be peace." Cave gave Lid a long and hard look, then the same at Jene. "Aren't you?"

"History rarely lies." Lid closed the distance between Cave and herself in an instant and grabbing her throat. "This is why the goddesses are complacent. This place, it takes the fear of death, of pain, of suffering away." Cave struggled to get free from her but Lid just tightened her grip. "It's useless. If this was the battlefield, no matter what you tried, I would snap your neck before you could do anything." Relaxing her grip and letting Cave go free, Lid stared the redhead down with eyes so cold that they made the special forces operative freeze up, like a great predator could do to their prey. "You need a lot more experience, Cave."

Cave felt the edges of her vision go black. She had never actually frozen in front of danger before. No matter what. A bomb about to explode, a heated firefight, a desperate situation with the women working under her mostly dead, she had always found a way to remain cool. But Lid managed to put the fear of death in her just by staring her down.

The eyes of the experienced soldier returned to normal, no longer staring down Cave, and she visibly relaxed. "No hard feelings, Cave. But if a war does break out and we're not on the same side, take Nisa and run. You might be a good operative but one day the evils you commit will get to you." Lid turned away and gave Jene a brief look, telling her to follow. "I will talk to the others that aren't part of the Black Devotion as well. We have space in our ranks if you're interested in joining, too. Not all of us are assigned to the really black missions." Leaving Cave with this advice, Lid left the lowest deck by climbing up a wooden ladder.

"She can be frightening. But if she is showing you that side of hers just means that she cares." Jene had some experience working with Lid. "Let's go back."

Not twenty minutes later, Vert and the rest of Celestia took off to tackle another quest while Makers was left behind. On board of their ship, on the top deck, the 21 members of Makers were surrounding their guild master. Lid had her serious face on, which was the first time seeing it for some of them, like IF or Marvel. And they knew right away that there was no room to joke around in the discussion or lecture that was about to commence. "The goddesses are progressing rapidly through the game. It will be a matter of a week or two, maybe three, before they get us all out of here. Before that happens, some of you will have an important decisions to make. To join me and the others at the Black Devotion, the greatest mercenary group under the sky, or not."

"What's brought this on all of a sudden?" The younger of the two Falcoms couldn't help but be weirded out by this sudden and serious topic.

"The goddesses will live for a few more centuries, but we won't. We'll be dead in fifty to sixty years, if we don't croak on the battlefield," Estelle replied, like it was the most normal thing in the world to say. Falcom looked at her like she was some kind of strange being from outer space. "What?"

The older Falcom was less shocked but no less surprised. She looks all innocent and cute on the surface, and she goofs around a lot, but come to think of it, she is part of that crazy mercenary group.

"Estelle is right. The goddesses may be expecting a lasting peace but I have my doubts. Especially with all these new goddesses now. There is no telling how any of the nations are going to move forward. The leadership has changed everywhere." Jene briefly took control from Lid, briefing everyone on what this was all about. "Those in our guild; we consider you family. Even if our paths should cross on the battlefield, we will avoid killing you if possible. But to eliminate this chance of a lethal encounter to begin with, we're putting a choice before you. Join us in one of three capacities. Combat related operations, intelligence related operations or maintenance. Those categories are fairly self-explanatory."

"So we can join you or we can go our own way and potentially run across you in a bad situation if somehow a war breaks out again." IF summarized it to the point. "It's a pretty big stretch, expecting another war to break out. They look pretty peaceful to me."

"Naive." Lid put her right boot right on the table at which IF sat. "They are playing family in here, away from responsibility and powers. Natural resources, territory claims, reparations, fanatical patriotism. None of those are pressing concerns in this world. But out there, where people can die, things will be different. Make no mistake, this world is a great place to put aside differences, to live in peace. But it isn't going to last forever." Lid tried to gauge IF's reaction and then continued. "War has existed for as long as people. The goddesses playing nice with each other won't change that."

It was hard for IF to refute that. A goddess that refused the will of her people was not going to last long. But where people really that narrow-minded and eager to put the blame on others? They are. IF had seen this first hand during the war. Four months after the first conflict, a large group of refugees from Planeptune tried to flee to Lowee, seeking asylum. Their military had shot them on sight. And that was just one of the incidents she had personally witnessed as an agent of the guild. People just had the capacity of evil within them all by themselves.

IF's silence was enough for Lid. Getting her boot off the table, Lid then slowly walked in a circle around the tables that everyone sat at. "We won't force anyone to join. Understand that the most we can do, as mercenaries, is to not attack you if we do meet in a situation that calls for it. We're mercenaries and we value only three things. Money. Loyalty. And each other. The Black Devotion, our name, it originates from how we operate, how we exist. In the shadows, devoted to our work and our family. All of us are ready to die for each other."

"You will die for each other?" CC couldn't believe that was really the case.

"Soldiers die for their nations. Parents die for their children. There is nothing strange about us dying to protect each other." Ryuka, who sat next to CC, spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. Like everyone else in the Black Devotion, she could put her personality and issues aside. "If we are in a situation where one of us can save the others by dying, we will. We train and work hard to make sure that doesn't happen too often."

"You won't have to make this decision right away; whether to join us or not. And if you join, what role do you want to fulfill. By the time this game is over and the goddesses have finished playing house, that is when I will need an answer." Lid finished her little speech.

"I won't need that long. I'm joining. I used to work for the guild and I was used as a personal messenger by the Dark Queen once. She also saved my life. I can work as a liaison between you and the underworld." IF didn't have any intentions of going back to the guild. Fighting monsters seemed almost irrelevant when war was possibly looming on the horizon, she realized that now. And her knowledge of the dark world would come in handy. "Don't misunderstand though, I am only going to work in intelligence. I won't have any part in whatever brutalities you girls are going to commit." The guild had plenty of people that could fill her spot. But there were very few, if any, that had her experience in dealing with Pyraba. And if she was with these people, she might be able to influence them from within, making a bloody mission far less bloody ahead of time.

IF had expected some kind of big reaction, but there was barely anything. They just looked at her. Did I jump the shark? But then it came. Lid was suddenly right in front of her, having approached without IF even noticing her, almost as if she could use stealth technology in broad daylight. And now Lid was simply staring her down. But IF had dealt with dangerous monsters and been in many life threatening situations recently. She withstood Lid's glare and even returned the look.

"No cracking under pressure. I see you have the makings of a great agent." Lid muttered under her breath before she turned to the others. "From now on, until death or her free will take her from us, IF is one of the Black Devotion. Treat her accordingly!"

CC, the Falcom sisters and Cave were startled when all12 members of the Black Devotion rose at the same time. No salute, no call sign, no words. Just acknowledgment. And IF was beaming. It was like a secret society. A secretive group of mercenaries that view each other as family, setting out to get any job done if the money is right, by any means necessary. It's… it's so cool. "Should I change my name?"

"We do not use names on active missions. Your are member number thirteen, which is all we will call you during missions. But otherwise, you are just who you are. That hasn't changed. Just IF." Jene was glad to have IF with them, pegging her as a very smart girl. A decent but not excelling fighter that had more of a knack for surveillance and spying than real combat.

"I'm in too." Capcom put her boots on the table in front of her, all leaned back into her chair. "The solo shtick was getting a little old anyway and if we by any chance have to take out a goddess, I am going to need someone to carry my beat up ass out of there after I get the job done. Tekken, you're signing up too." That was not a question but an order.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the blood and thrills, Capcom." Lid glanced at Tekken, right next to Capcom. "Are you sure you're going to be joining us?"

"Yes." Tekken moved her chair a little closer to Capcom. Being a masochist and naturally good person didn't stop her from being in love with the shooter. The age difference didn't bother her either. Or that Capcom was killing people for a living. As long as she could be with Capcom, Tekken didn't care what she had to do to make that happen.

With three of the girls joining right off the bat, the others were suddenly putting serious consideration to this idea. Cave specifically thought about it but was cautious because there was no way Nisa would join an organization like that.

"Those of you undecided, there is no need to rush. Make your decisions carefully. Until then, I believe we should get our ass in gear and actually progress through this game. The goddesses are leaving us in the dust." Lid changed the topic so those other girls wouldn't be influenced by the sudden flood of people joining. She hadn't expected it, and certainly not three people at that. But it was good to see that people wanted to be part of her family. Human life was short and fleeting. Having the goddesses around made that so very clear, every day. "Ain, your turn. Where are we going today?"

===OVERHEAT===

The ground trembled, rocks dancing over the earth, a wild thunder rampaging over the plains. Claws clashed with stone and metal, arrows rained down from above, blood and iron were in the air. "Peashy, we need bombardments on the north side!" Blanc bellowed out, commandeering the battle.

The guild was defending a fort against a seemingly endless onslaught of monsters. Surrounded by great plains in all directions, the fort was a great square, made of solid stone and high walls, only a few small buildings within, but fortifications on and within the ten meter high walls. The quest seemed completely impossible without a large party, because they were being attacked from every direction at once. Monsters scaling the walls with ladders, raining down arrows and cannon fire on the fort alike.

"There's too many for me to bomb them all! And that big ass… thing is getting pretty close!" Peashy unleashed a series of shells into the air, right above the center of the fort that split into parts and rained down fire and destruction to every side of the fort, killing dozens of monsters.

Plutia's switch had been flipped earlier when an arrow hit her elbow. Watching one of her summons, the Wizard Dav Y, sling elemental spells at the monsters in the east, she was laughing like a maniac. "Dance, little ones, dance and show me your pain!"

"Blanc, we need to do something about these hordes. If that big hulking thingy reaches us, it definitely is going to break the fort in one fell swoop!" Nepgear had an idea. "If Mina or Plutia can use one of their spells or summons to get rid of the hordes for a moment I can take a few of us out to take down that big thing!"

"Take Vert, Uni, Natal, Histoire and Neptune. Go!" Blanc was not very used to giving orders but she did the best she could. It was her quest after all. Staring at the monster in the distance, it was a colossal four legged monstrosity, with an enormously long snout, gigantic flabby ears, massive tusks and gray, wrinkled skin. It was at least a hundred meters high and must have weighted unbelievably much. Blanc wanted to go herself, but the fort almost fell apart instantly without her inside. For the quest itself, she had been given a unique skill that let the fort slowly repair itself.

"There's too many of them!" Ram was covering the south. Rom was hopping all over the place, healing up people that were getting hit by arrows or cannon fire. Chika and Zelena were still nowhere to be seen and Vert had been very upset about that. "Even using Vortex spells isn't enough!"

"Stay strong!" Mina was prepping a double Ultima, which would no doubt blow a massive hole into the enemy forces. "Twenty seconds until I'm done casting!" The quest imposed a penalty on casting times for AOE abilities, which was quite a problem.

Dengekiko had a great idea to at least temporarily stop the flow of flying monsters from the north. Noire covered that direction but was steadily falling behind. "Peashy, throw me north! As hard as you can!"

"Are you insane?!" Peashy couldn't see what good that would do.

"I'm going to use World Cataclysm. But I can't use it around the fort because it inflicts friendly fire!" Denko wanted to be useful. And even though she covered the area around the fort in hazardous environments, it wasn't enough to kill off the monster stream entirely;

"At least wait until Mina finished blowing them all to kingdom come!" Peashy kept firing at the monsters. Down below, at the northern wall and gate, Nepgear was ready to take her ragtag party out into the wild fray. Nepgear was pretty sure she was going to die but she'd darn well take out that big hulking thing first. It was a massively chaotic situation, with monster types constantly changing on all sides, Ram, Noire, Mina and Plutia were all sticking to their sides, but they couldn't go on infinitely.

"Everyone put on any sunglasses you may have!" Mina joked, about to unleash the first double Ultima she had ever cast. The magical energy in the air was so great that her hair was floating into the air, as if gravity was being reversed. "Altmer!"

Rom was literally swept off her feet because she had been passing right behind Mina, but luckily Windy was there to catch her, stopping her from falling over the wall. A gigantic green shock wave pulsated outwards from the castle at the speed of sound. And for a second, there was nothing. Then the explosion followed, pulverizing the enemies on the atomic level, all around the fort, up to five-hundred meters distance, the effective range of Altmer. Mina felt physically tired after unleashing the cast but immediately started casting the next spell.

The gray monstrosity raised its snout and shot out several large black spheres that rapidly approached the fort. Blanc stood tall on the walls and prepared to take the impact all on her own. Down below, Nepgear and her group rushed out, towards the gigantic monster. They had to take that down at any cost, even if they all died.

"Weight of the World!" Blanc activated one of her skills and the walls ached under her sudden weight. Making herself heavy enough to take even an approaching mountain and halting it, effectively disabling knock back from all attacks, Blanc then combined this with another skill. "Protector of the Lands!" It redirected all incoming attacks to her. The spheres changed course, each of them more than five meters in radius, and Blanc endured the impact of all of them, her HP dropping dangerously low.

Nepgear and her party had reached the monster in the meantime. Small fry was already flooding back into the plains and Mina was nowhere near done casting another Altmer. And this time it was Plutia who wanted to show off. "Windy, ReiRei, bye, bye! Divine Gate! Gate of Lies! Gate of Truth times three!"

The chaos that unfolded in the wake of Plutia using all of her powerful skills at the same time, and sacrificing both Rei and Windy in the process, was making the chaotic battlefield even more chaotic. From far above, a gigantic laser beam crashed down, bathing the entire zone in its damaging light, eradicating all the small fry that still kept endlessly spawning at the far border of this tiny reality. The summoning of Bamut Ter was followed by both Train of Doom and Diaburos running wild on the field. Plutia was down for the count, having four summons active at the same time, the wizard on top of those other three.

With all those summons wreaking havoc on the field, the onslaught became more than manageable. Noire and Ram were able to take an almost ten second break before they had to ward off further attackers. The endless amount of deadly status conditions the Train of Doom inflicted on everything it ran over, combined with Diaburos throwing large groups of enemies into gigantic black spheres that lead to black holes in space, was too much for even a quest like this.

Mina didn't see the lack of immediate enemy threat as something to worry about. She was going to hold her next spell until the threat level rose. Plutia's summons would not be around forever and who knew how long this onslaught was going to last?

Nepgear's team did an excellent job, Blanc saw, as the gigantic gray monster fell to its knees and then to the ground entirely, not vanishing but providing a massive blockage the monsters had to go around or above. And just as she thought the worst was behind her, two more of those colossal things appeared, this time in the east and the west at the same time. The one in the west was immediately targeted by Plutia's summons, who remained stuck on the monster, keeping it in check and dealing massive damage to it, but also letting the small fry run free.

"Peashy, throw me east!" Dengekiko figured that if they had the flying types from the north under control now, she could make use of Cataclysm in another way.

"Your death sentence." Peashy put down her cannon, grabbing both of Dengekiko's arms and started to whirl her around, sending her flying towards the east. Before the Geomancer could even hit the ground, she activated her most superlative ability, the moment she was out of effective range of the fort. "World Cataclysm!"

The east was so violently warped that it made no sense for anyone that looked. Reality was compressed, shifting over ten times a second, violently rotating through every hazardous environment known to humans and monsters alike. And to make it even worse, gravity was so strong that not even the gray giant could stand on its four legs, falling to the ground but clearly still alive.

"If she had let that loose on the fort, we would be dead in second." Blanc saw what was unfolding in the east and it was an unparalleled disaster zone. And never before had those words been such an understatement. It made the chaos that Mages's floating continent brought with it look like a child's tantrum. "Mina, north and south are looking like trouble. Blow those bastards all up!" Blanc was sliding into her aggressive mode more and more now.

The giant in the west was struggling to stay alive against Plutia's summons. Ram was defending both the south and the west side against the small fry now. Nepgear's party was rushing towards the west to take down the severely weakened giant. Dengekiko had effectively blocked off the entire east and tiny patches of the south and north, cutting off any and all reinforcements from that direction. Noire still had her hands full with the north, using enemy skills to take out enemies. Guided beams, exploding spheres, raining flames, violent tremors, her entire repertoire was being used. Vermillion Lord, a spell that called down massive lightning rain, was proving particularly useful against the flying enemies.

Blanc was truly grateful that she had such a capable team and she knew that it was thanks to Vert that everyone knew what they had to do. Mina unleashed another Altmer and the green shock wave cleaned out everything in a five-hundred meter range in every direction. The giant in the west fell moments later to Nepgear while the one in the east succumbed to the massive onslaught of nature that Dengekiko, who had made it all the way back to the fort now, had brought upon the area.

And as if to ridicule Blanc, four more giants appeared. Dengekiko's Cataclysm was used up, Plutia's summons ran out of time and Mina had just unleashed a spell. They were heavily out of options. Blanc didn't see how they would take down four of those giants in time. But thankfully, she had others by her side that had more situational awareness.

Nepgear's group split into half on Vert's orders. Neptune, Histoire and Uni remained in the west, while Nepgear, Vert and Natal headed south. Assuming that each party was going to at least significantly delay the giants, Blanc had to deal with just the north and the east, making it manageable. "Noire, is there anything you can do to push that thing back when it gets close?"

Noire didn't stop casting to answer Blanc. "Yes. But if you want me to use that, I need to start charging now to make it strong enough. We don't have enough anti-air capability though."

"We do." Peashy dragged the freshly resurrected Rei, who was very much struggling to cope with the situation at hand, over to the northern wall. "She and I will be covering this side. Get charging or casting or whatever!" Peashy wasn't really the type to take charge and give orders but if shooting down stuff was all she had to do, she could manage. Rei was a very quick draw and her elemental arrows really packed a punch, which made taking down the larger flying monsters much easier. It also kept her away from Plutia.

Noire moved aside and put her wrists together and stretched out her arms. "Turtle..." A small energy sphere manifested between her hands, slowly growing more powerful. It was fueled by her MP regeneration and it could basically grow infinitely large, but it took a long time to charge it and she could only do so while in combat.

Dengekiko was running circles around the fort, dropping one hazardous environment after another, slowing the approaching enemies to a crawl, giving the frantic Ram enough time to cover three sides on her own.

Kei had been working on something in the center of the fort from the very beginning and she was almost done now. It inflicted a very special status on every monster in the zone, wasn't very expensive to build, but took a long time to assemble. "Mina, tell me before you unleash your next spell!"

"Are you finally done, Kei?!" Blanc had already given up on seeing the Machinist finish her gadget.

"This should guarantee our victory!" Kei shouted back. The device was not all that useful in standard play, at least not outside very crowded and spawn intensive dungeons. And even then, it took too long to set up. But in this situation, it was perfect. The second she had seen the onslaught, Kei had made an educated guess and started setting up accordingly. And now it was about to pay off. Once unleashed, the device would turn every killed enemy in a landmine, their corpse remaining for up to 120 seconds, setting off a massive explosion when triggered by proximity. And each enemy that was killed by it became such a mine as well.

All four giants started shooting their black spheres at the same time and Blanc knew there was only one way to avoid total annihilation. "Peashy, throw me up!" Blanc hated to have to ask for that. Peashy throwing around people because of her really high strength stat was already comical, but the tall blonde throwing the much shorter Blanc was particularly funny looking.

Flying high into the air, Blanc used everything she had to brace herself for the impact from all four sides. "Protector of the Lands!" Attracting the attacks again, Blanc was almost crushed between the spheres that dissipated moments after crashing into her. But she endured. The first wave, the second and the third. But only because she had been careful enough to bring extremely potent healing items, ones that restored you to 100% in less than a second. Landing in the center of the fort, Blanc rolled through the dirt, propelled by the kinetic force from the spheres.

The giant in the south suddenly fell and started taking massive damage because it ran into one of Natal's traps. Boss enemy or not, with a Magic trapper at level 99, even a boss could be harassed quite a lot. The west was looking good as well. The giant didn't really attack the tiny ants by its feet and Neptune had endless fodder enemies to restore her HP with. Histoire and Uni stuck right behind the Dark Knight, bombarding the giant with bullets and mental attacks, slowing it to a crawl, whittling away its HP.

"...Destruction..." Noire was still charging up, the energy sphere now larger than her own body, wildly rotating and pulsating in front of her. She hated using this spell because it sounded absolutely silly, but there was no denying the power. The knock back left aside, the damage alone would be extraordinary for sure. And while she kept charging, Mina had finished casting another Altmer and was now holding it. Plutia had called on Siren Queen, cutting Ram's and Mina's casting times in half, helping the defense dramatically. There was a constant bombardment of spells all around the forth by Ram, who was just running circles around the fort now, dropping Vortex spells, spells that had their range enhanced but damage reduced, all over the place, single-handedly taking care of everything on the ground.

"Kei, I'm ready!" Mina shouted and Kei immediately hit the switch. The gadget beeped a few times and then released a ton of black smoke, which were actually tiny, tiny machines that would act like parasites, infecting the monsters and turning them into bombs.

"Fifteen seconds!" Kei gave Mina a countdown and immediately prepped another gadget, one that would create a large protective barrier around the area the gadget was in. A last ditch effort to preserve the fort if the giants came too close.

Both the south and the west giants were stalled but the northern and eastern had made it more than halfway now. The guild was running low on time. Blanc hoped that Kei's plan, whatever it was, would free up the girls still inside the fort so they could go out and attack the giants.

"Altmer!" Mina unleashed her spell. And this time, the explosion was followed by an infinite chain-reaction. The monsters at the border of the zone kept spawning, dying to land mines and turned into landmines themselves. There was complete carnage in every direction. Only the flying monsters remained. Rei and Peashy took off, heading for one of the giants, leaving Ram to deal with the flying small fry on her own. The Sorceress was best suited to dealing with many weak monsters, not one hulking gargantuan thing that took tons of punishment.

The southern giant fell to the continued onslaught of Natal and Vert. Nepgear was already on her way back to the fort, just in case one of the giants made it there. She could take the damage of the fort upon herself, and, for one minute at least, she could survive whatever the giant dished out.

Blanc, Ram, Mina, Noire, Kei and Nepgear were the only ones that remained at the fort. The guild was spread out all over the place. Noire was having trouble controlling the energy sphere now, which was four times the size of her body. And the giant creature was pretty close now. It was time. "Turtle Destruction Wave!"

The entire guild was briefly distracted with an absolutely massive energy beam erupting from the fort, crashing into the gray giant in the north and pushing it back, further and further, all the way to the boundary of the zone, against the invisible wall.

The recoil inside the fort was so great that Blanc had to stand behind Noire, using Weight of the World to make herself unmovable and put both of her arms around Noire's waist so she Manipulator wasn't blown off the wall by her own spell. And she still kept firing, her MP slowly dwindling down. Ram was watching the spectacle with starry eyes. She wanted an attack like that.

At the western giant, Neptune was slashing away at the beast's feet while she smirked wide. "Noire can be seriously cool. Maybe I should try and turn on the charm a little with her!"

"That's my sister you're talking about! Shut up and keep attacking!" Uni didn't want to hear someone talk that way about Noire. It was somehow strangely embarrassing.

Good goddess, Neptune and Noire as a couple would bring about the end of the world without a doubt. Histoire could already feel the eternal headache she would get if something like that were to happen. But with Noire being who she was, that was never going to happen.

The southern giant already killed, the one in the west followed shortly after Noire's attack finished. The monster in the north was heavily damaged by Noire's attack, who was now suffering from MP burn out and needed a moment to recover.

"Manipulator is a broken class," Blanc commented all matter of fact.

"Just look how long it took to charge that up. And you can let go of me now, Blanc." Noire straightened her robe after Blanc let go of her and took a few steps back, sitting down on the stone wall, tired.

With the smaller monsters endlessly being killed by landmines, the giants were not too difficult to take out. The one in the east fell first. After that, the combined might of the guild came down like a hammer of lightning on the northern giant. And that marked the end of the quest. Warped out of the quest zone and into the standard room for skills, Blanc was glad to finally receive her final level up. The soul she had needed to open the trial had been prohibitively expensive but it had all paid off.

They were barely outside when Neptune dropped to the ground, her sword beside her, her hands flattening the grass that grew tall around her. "I'm so beat. What are they even thinking with these trials? Most of them can't be done without a big guild!"

"Stop complaining. You're a Dark Knight, you're supposed to have stamina coming out your ears." Noire couldn't believe Neptune was such a slob. "And what kind of knight just drops their sword on the ground?"

"Eh, but I'm so tired! Maybe if I had a Noire smile to charge my Nep batteries?" Neptune tried her best puppy eyes but Noire didn't even flinch. "No? Nothing? Not even a little itty bitty tiny Noire smile?" And still Noire's expression didn't change.

"What is your sister trying to do?" Uni sat with Nepgear, watching Neptune beg a few more times and Noire growing visibly more irritated. "Noire is going to throw her off the ship again if she keeps that up."

"I think she just likes to push Noire's buttons." Nepgear really hoped that was the case. This grown up version of Neptune was really not grown up in any capacity other than her looks. She was the same silly girl that she had always been. In a way, Nepgear was glad this was the case. It made it easy to actually move past the fact she had caused so much pain. And she was gradually doing so and returning to seeing Neptune as just Neptune. But even if she went back there, she definitely was not going to spoil her anymore or do her share of work.

"Speaking of pushing buttons..." Uni gently poked Nepgear's right shoulder and pointed at Vert, a few meters away from Noire and Neptune. The, Lowee goddess was looking unbelievably irritated. They had never seen rage marks on Vert's face before and it was not just intimidating but also worrying. She really takes this game super seriously. Well… I can't say I'm surprised. But still, she looks really mad. And I'm pretty sure it's because Chika and Zelena are still gone without a trace. I was thinking about taking Nepgear on a... date later, but… well.. maybe a date. Is it a date? She's my girlfriend so… it would be a date, right?

"Uni, you're blushing." Nepgear whispered to her girlfriend, thinking she was seeing some kind of wardrobe malfunction on Vert or Blanc.

"I'm not thinking about dates or anything!" Uni suddenly burst out and then immediately went silent, blushing even harder.

Meanwhile, Vert was rapidly tapping her foot on the ground, still unable to reach Chika or Zelena via guild chat or private chat. "I think I need to have a serious chat with those two when they come back." There were a lot of anger marks on Vert's face.

"I didn't know you could lose your temper like that." Blanc was surprised to see that it wasn't just her who could blow a fuse. Even if it took a vastly different form and shape with Vert than it did with herself.

"Simply blowing the rest of the guild off without even a message is really rude!" Vert slammed her spear into the ground so hard that only a third of the weapon remained above ground. "Ah, they're making me mad!" Vert raised her voice and stomped on the ground a few times before biting her lower lip and making an unbelievably angry expression that made Blanc back away by half a step. "If they wanted time off they could have asked! I would absolutely schedule for that! And they have the morning and evening off every day anyway! What is their problem?!"

"Wow! Vert is about to explode like Blanc!" Ram was both terribly amused and super intrigued where she could take this. Teasing Blanc was funny because of her reactions. If Vert took gaming this seriously, Ram wondered just how mad she would get if she overwrote her save games.

"Let's not make Vert explode..." Rom already guessed what Ram was thinking and she really didn't want to have two older sisters that had a temper like a wildfire. Once set off, there was no stopping it.

"It could be fun, though. Seeing the composed, beautiful lady type all riled up like this would make for some great videos to upload to Neptube." Windy was with Ram on this one.

"Rom and I are not going to save you when Blanc and Vert catch you plotting against them." Natal was learning to speak up when the situation demanded it. "We're not gonna help."

"By the goddess, I swear I will lock them in a room without any video games whatsoever! For three days! A week!" Vert felt that her reason was getting away from her but she had trouble getting herself under control. There was no doubt in her mind. If she was back in the real world, she would definitely have transformed and flown off out of rage. Stomping on the ground again, pulling her spear out and ramming it back into the ground, Vert was, compared to her usual demeanor, devolving into a raging lunatic.

"Vert… you need to calm down." I of all people shouldn't be saying that but… And Vert is kinda cute, being all angry like that. Compared to her own cursing and violent outbursts, Vert's was very controlled and cute.

There was a loud slamming sound and everyone, including Vert and Blanc, turned their head towards the source. Neptune had been levitated into the air by Noire and then slammed into the ground. "Keep your dirty paws to yourself you molesting good for nothing!" Noire was shouting at the ex-goddess with a bright red face. Levitating and slamming Neptune into the ground a second time, just for good measure, Noire walked away very quickly.

Natal poked Windy's leg. "That's gonna be you if you make Vert explode."

Denko had a worried expression as she kept watching. "I didn't know Lady Vert had the capacity to get so angry." Dengekiko and Famitsu had put a bit of space between themselves and the angry Lowee goddess. Seeing her shout, stomp and angrily fling her spear around was quite something. Not really threatening or frightening in any way, but… a little worrying. Blanc was known for her temper and now Vert was showing that, if confronted with the right impetus, she had that same temper. That wasn't good.

"She's not the only one with a temper. Look over there." Famitsu never let anything news-worthy escape her.

"Why are you so attached to her?!" Peashy was already fed up with Plutia being all over Rei ever since that woman joined. "She's cute but she's not cuter than me, so what gives?! And I'm your girlfriend!"

Plutia was just sitting there, hugging Rei from behind, while Peashy was angrily towering over the two. And in stark contrast to Vert, her anger was of the violent sort. She had half a mind to just punch this Rei woman and send her flying!

"I'm not t-trying to come between y-you or anything! I n-never even had anyone I l-liked!" Rei was quite intimidated by the angry Peashy.

"You shut up!" Peashy didn't want to hear another word out of Rei.

"Y-Yes! I'm sorry!" Rei immediately lowered her head and hoped she was going to get out of this in one piece. That Peashy couldn't really hurt her didn't even occur to her.

"Bad~ Pko, scaring ReiRei like that! She's so~ cute and huggable!" Plutia didn't see where the problem was. She still spent most of her time with Pko, so why was she so angry?

"Ploot, you can't sleep with me, be my girlfriend and then go around and just dote on this woman you barely know all day!" Peashy was so jealous of Rei right now that she was having difficulty just keeping her desire to punch her in check. "You're mine! I am not sharing you with this woman!"

"I'm not anyone's." Plutia looked slightly pissed now, her eyes narrowing and her voice dropping. "You're acting like a little kid, Pko." The whole my pace atmosphere that surrounded Plutia dissipated surprisingly quickly when she got mad. "ReiRei never had any~one be nice to her. You should be nice to her too~."

"Like hell I will be nice to the woman my girlfriend is treating like a body pillow!" Peashy got surprisingly loud. Loud enough that the rest of the guild was now paying attention. Meanwhile, Rei wished she could shrink into nothingness. But she didn't have the guts to free herself from Plutia's hug either because she didn't want to be rude to the one person that was so very nice to her.

The people that were watching the spectacle unfold were quite confused when Peashy suddenly tried to pull Rei out of Plutia's arms, the Planeptune goddess and the independent goddess pulling on one arm each, about to tear the poor Tari goddess in half. Dengekiko in particular was worried about how this was going to end. "Shouldn't we… help her?"

Famitsu quickly shook her head. "You're welcome to get in the middle of sadistic heart and jealous heart over there and tell them to stop." No matter how this ended, it would end worse if someone tried to intervene.

And of all the possible people that could have intervened, the worst of them all tried to. Neptune was suddenly right in the middle of it, jumping on Rei's shoulders and sitting there, legs dangling over Rei's chest. "Stop~!" Neptune stretched out her arms, her hands very close to Plutia's and Peashy's faces.

The fallout was spectacular. Peashy punched Neptune and Plutia managed to actually hit Neptune in the face with her braid by just really sharply turning her head. With Neptune knocked out and on the ground, the tugging war continued until both Peashy and Plutia noticed a very tall shadow right next to them. Nobody but those two and Rei could see Vert's face, yet they never spoke of what it had looked like. Everyone thought it must have been quite something if it got Plutia and Peashy to stop fighting.

It was only minutes after Vert's intervention that a global event commenced. The rainy season had started within the game and it was pouring down just about everywhere. Torrential rain hammered down on the guild, and while it did cool down the heads of those that were fighting or thinking naughty thoughts, it did very little to calm down Vert, who was still looking mightily pissed by the time they got back to the ship. Jene was there, waiting for them to return, with an umbrella to protect herself against the rain. When she saw Vert's face, and Blanc's troubled expression that stemmed from Vert still not calming down, she decided to come back later.

"Jene, hold up." Kei managed to fit in under the umbrella with Jene while Mina hurried below deck to at least change her clothes. "What did you want?"

"Now seems to be a bad time." Jene could her an angry scream that sounded like Kiiiiiii from below deck. A monkey? "Actually, it shouldn't take much of your time. The Tamer union is going on strike, according to Moru, and she has been trying to reach Lady Zelena to discuss the strike terms with her. Apparently the market has been quite cruel to their business and services. The Sage union is planning to strike as well. If you could contact Lady Zelena and request of her to contact Moru, that would be much appreciated." Jene knew she couldn't really make any demands of these people but politeness and owing a favor went a long way in their business.

"I will tell her." Kei was not going to tell Jene that Zelena and Chika had been AWOL the entire day, ever since last night. It was starting to worry her. Neither of them were the type to just vanish like that.

"And if I may ask, what happened to Lady Vert? I have never seen her so displeased."

"A little internal trouble. Nothing you should be concerned with. Say hello to Lid for me. Now, if you'll excuse me." Kei bolted and dashed towards the room that led below deck. She was not a fan of standing in the rain.

Jene returned to her own ship over the bridge that was still connecting the ships. Heading below deck, she closed and opened the umbrella rapidly a few times to get most of the water off it. Putting it into a small container by the ladder, she headed down another deck. Their ship was constructed differently than the Celestia. The entire second deck below was one large dining hall with kitchen, where most of the guild was just having an early dinner now.

Red and Marvel were cooking together. IF had taken the seat closest to the kitchen, and was taking an interest in what was going on in there. Even a monkey could figure out what Red's priority was within five minutes, so it didn't come as a surprise when she kept trying to flirt with Marvel, but wasn't very good at it. But in a strange way, the short redhead was adorable in how clumsy she was with her words. Being in close proximity to the goddesses and just being a member of Makers in general, IF had picked up a new hobby; imagining how certain people would work out as a couple or outright trying to supporting them from the shadows. Just by looking down the table, IF had a lot to work with in that regard. Aizen is still trying to get into Falcom's pants. But she's got no chance. Falcom clearly has a thing for Ain who is too caught up in her delusions to pick up on that. Maybe I should talk to Ain about this. I would love to see her embarrassed face and be all nervous the next time she meets Falcom. Speaking of being nervous; LeeFi and CC are totally going to be a thing with the way they keep looking at each other.

While IF continued to observe some of the girls, imagining some rather erotic things, Lid sat down next to her. "Don't be afraid to make a move. We're all very easygoing when it comes to who sleeps with who." The dirty look on Lid's face brought IF back to reality.

"I'm not really-" IF raised her hands and wished she had a cellphone to occupy herself with right now.

"I know. You're the type that gets a kick out of looking, aren't you?" Lid continued to be mean to IF.

That's not really it, either. I wouldn't mind a girlfriend but… it would have to be someone cute, caring and… curvy. Like Lady Vert. But not actually a pseudo-immortal ruler of a nation. "Do you haze all the new members?"

Lid burst out in laughing. "If I was hazing you, believe me, you'd know. And no, I don't actually do that. There will be plenty of opportunity to yell at you for fucking up down the line. Everyone fucks up occasionally, including me and Jene. Don't tell Jene I said that, though."

"Was there anything else?" IF wanted to get back to her fantasy world. Because she was facing Lid, she couldn't see but she could hear Marvelous laugh behind her. Did Red manage to make a joke? I am missing historic events here.

"I wanted to talk to you about Pyraba and Lady Noire. We already touched on this during the grinding party earlier, but I want to hear the full story." Lid knew a lot about the people she considered family. From Estelle's failed heroics and her fall from grace to the secret past of Wac that nobody else was aware of.

"That's a long story." IF wasn't too keen on revisiting those memories but if she was serious about joining this band of mercenaries, she couldn't just say no after making her past and experiences with the underworld a selling point for getting in.

"We have time. Judging by the storm that those two are cooking up in the kitchen, a bunch of it, too." Lid got out of her chair before IF could say anything. "What do you wanna drink?"

===OVERHEAT===

Ram and Windy weren't bothered by the wind and rain at all. They could always just take another bath and change back into their civil outfits. Running through the hammering rain, each step of them leaving a resounding splash on the flooded deck, they found out quickly that the rain provided an excellent lubricant for the smooth wood. Sprinting for a second and a half, they jumped, landed and slid across the entire deck, laughing their hearts out.

Repeating this a few times, Ram crashed into a table on her fifth run and was now on collision course with the rail of the ship, about to go over board. Flailing helplessly, unable to stop her rapid approach and imminent fall, Ram considered that maybe she would be a bit more careful; after getting back up and continuing.

But before she could actually go overboard, someone caught her. It wasn't Windy, she was at the other end of the ship, having watched with mixed feelings; amusement and embarrassment. "Now, now, Ram, that isn't how a lady behaves." Ram immediately recognized the voice as belonging to Chika. It was hard to see her because the rain was really heavy and Ram's long, wet hair was obfuscating her view. Ram could feel both of Chika's arms around her waist now. "Whatever will I do with you?"

"Chika!" Ram was surprised to see her out in the rain. "Did you just get back? Vert is super furious, you know! She was acting like Blanc and everything! Where's Zelena?`"

"Lady Zelena got word from her union and is heading there right now. And yes, I just got back. We had a little… accident in the infinite library and weren't allowed to leave until we cleaned up." Chika sounded embarrassed. Letting go of the candidate, Chika noticed that Windy was coming over. "Windy, as Vert's little sister you should know better than this."

"I am terribly embarrassed. But once you have tried it out for yourself, you will find it hard to resist." Windy still liked to retain a modicum of dignity in front of Chika and Zelena. She was, technically, a candidate of Lowee, but she felt more connected to Leanbox. The opposite was true of Ram, who was a candidate for Leanbox but felt more at home in Lowee.

"Now, I am sure I might forget all about seeing the two of you out here if anyone should ask. If, and only if, you finish a little tasj for me." Chika smiled in the rain. Both the candidates before her didn't look like they were very enthusiastic about the prospect of homework within a game world. But Blanc, Vert and Zelena would scold them if they knew about them playing around on deck like this and almost fell over board.

"Are you not with Zelena?" Windy tried to change the topic in the hopes that Chika would just forget about the homework.

"Chika says she's busy with union stuff and whatever." Ram rarely, if ever, went to her own union because she didn't really see the point. Sorceresses were often hired for purposes of farming parties and dungeon runs but she was not gonna do any of that silly stuff, so she had no reason to visit.

"That does remind me that my union sent out a mass notification earlier. Apparently there will be a PVP tournament just outside Lastation called the Queen of Fighters in… was it four or five days?" Windy went off on a completely unrelated tangent in hopes of distracting Chika even further.

"You should totally try it out! Let's go talk to Vert about getting you to 99 before that!" Ram managed only to take a single step forward before Chika suddenly grabbed her right wrist. Guess… that's a bust.

Chika smiled in a mildly annoyed way at both of them. "Now, now, you didn't really think I was going to let you off that easy, did you?" Chika let go of Ram and then pulled a large book from her inventory. "I want you to read this and give me a short report on the contents after you're done.

Ugh… it's so big… that's gonna take for~ever to read! Ram was really not looking forward to this. But she did want to at least appear like a lady. Because ladies were well respected and got to go to fancy parties and stuff! "Is that all? Just reading a book?"

Windy was of a similar opinion as Ram but she had an easier time pretending to not dislike it. "It is a thick book but… if that is all, I suppose we can do that."

Chika's eyes were narrowed to slits and she smirked with satisfaction. Handing the black book over to Windy, who looked displeased for a moment, Chika looked at them with her serious face one more time. "Yes, just read the book."

"I can't read the title." Windy tried to decipher it in the rain. She was surprised the book wasn't even being damaged by the rain. It didn't even seem to really get wet at all.

Chika walked past the two candidates, eager to get out of the rain and take a hot bath. It had been a long day. "It's a book that will explain a lot of things about our world." Chika vanished into the rain, disappearing from view. But just after she disappeared, her voice reached the two candidates once more. "Don't skip anything!"

Windy bent over to shield the book from the rain and squinted hard to make out the title. She was too curious to wait until she was inside. And she could just barely make out the two words printed in golden letters on the cover.

"Mek… Rou?"

===END OF LINE===


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