Interlude 1- Ancient History

'Hey, observer, are there any other 'big bads' I need to know about?'

I was within my mind once more and decided to ask my observer about any future enemies I might encounter, I didn't wish to have another incident such as what happened with Arfoire.

Not any that would interfere with the plan, the old gods and their slayers are long gone.

'The what?'

Old gods and their slayers? What the hell was it on about?

The Widely known history of Gamindustri depicts there being one goddess before the existence of the current four, that is incorrect. Before the four deities that exist now, there were a plethora of gods and goddesses however, they were not benevolent like their descendants, instead they were self-centred and cruel. their only goal was to amass faith and worship from humanity to gain power and ascend themselves further.

Their domains were equally as grotesque as the gods themselves were tyrannical. some were gods of plagues and disease, others governed over a corrupting essence, there even once existed a goddess of unholy flames that burned all. If left alive they would destroy everything, even their own worshippers.

One goddess realised this and bestowed power onto humanity, these blessed humans banded together and slayed a god, absorbing its power and becoming the first godslayers. Using their newfound power, they paved the way for humanities uprising with the blood of their foes. As more and more humans became godslayers however, conflict brewed between them. The power they held corrupted them into desiring even more power, eventually turning their blades on even the benevolent gods, sparing only one, that being the goddess that bestowed upon them the power to slay gods in the first place.

But even then, some desired her power for themselves. Fortunately, one godslayer put a stop to all the needless deicide before the goddess could be slain, his name was Akos. He built an empire to protect the pure humans that were untainted by divine power, though hypocritically he was the godslayer to kill the most gods. Regardless he managed to broker peace through violence, slaying any godslayer that would oppose him. and for millennia there was peace.

Until the careless murder of deities finally brought consequence, as while the slain gods' Essense and power were taken, their corrupted flesh was not. The flesh contained a primal form of sentience, that shared the desire of all the malevolent gods and struck out in a rage against everything and everyone. Where there once existed peace, there was chaos. With his people being slain and consumed in front of his very eyes, Akos' sins began to haunt him, he had slain all other godslayers, becoming the only one left, he was now one against hundreds. As strong as he was, he was not omniscient, thousands would die, and he would be powerless to stop it.

But all was not lost, through his years of killing deities, he had discovered they held the power to control aspects of reality, a power he too had taken for himself. He had attempted to rewrite reality and erase all of the fallen gods from existence, but his attempt was only partially successful, as while severely weakened the fallen were still alive. unfortunately, his attempt to erase the fallen had nearly erased Akos himself, holding a god's Essense had made Akos part god and thus if his act were to be fully enacted, he too would have to perish, but if he were to die then there would still be fallen who would retain their full strength. Thus he took a third option and only weakened the fallen at the cost of severely weakening himself. Now being mortal, Akos spent his remaining days slaying the remnants of the fallen.

The lone goddess that remained desired to help humanity once more, but knew that if she were to bestow power upon humans, events would repeat themselves. So she decided to create four new goddesses that she would ensure would help humanity for the better. But being the only deity left she had to resort to using her own flesh to create them. To ensure that the four deities would not be corrupted by the knowledge she held, she created a fairy to hold her wisdom, before splitting herself into the four goddesses that exist to this day. These goddesses would brand the fallen as 'monsters' and take a fourth of the world as their own, developing their landmasses as they saw fit

'Knowledge...history..." all the worlds' history" ...Histoire?...does that make Histoire the goddesses knowledge?'

Correct stranger. The one you know as "Histoire" is the fairy granted the goddesses' knowledge.

'Good to know.'

Now equipped with more knowledge, I exited the recess of my mind.

Interlude 2-a day out with iffy

I had decided to go with IF on one of her quests given to her by the guild, being a member as well as one of the ones responsible for gathering the data on monster disks allowed me to do so. the quest was to search through a dungeon for any monster disks, as there were Multiple accounts of adventurers complaining about there being an abnormally large number of monsters in the area. We had searched for a few hours but found nothing, eventually we decided to have a break. When we sat down IF started a conversation.

"Hey Zed, what's your opinion on Compa and Neptune?" her face had a teasing smile plastered all over it...best choose my next words carefully.

" Compa- though a bit airheaded- is the closest thing to a saint I have ever met, the fact that she treated mine and Neptune's injuries without question or asking for payment as well as the fact that she agreed to go with us on dangerous quests to save someone she doesn't know automatically puts her high up on my 'people I like a lot' list. The fact that she's a beautiful young lady only adds to my positive opinion."

Her teasing smile only widened at my words, and before I could start the second half of my reply, she spoke. "~well it looks like to me that a certain someone has a crush~" I knew she was only teasing, I was 17, not bloody 12, therefore my response wasn't to turn into a blathering mess, instead I simply stated "Oh grow up. I'm only stating facts." her teasing look diminished quite a bit before she spoke again.

"you're no fun, I was only joking." she paused for a second before continuing "Now come on then, tell me about Neptune." now I had to be extra careful with what I said, for all I knew IF might just tell them both what I said/am about to say, and while Compa might only get a bit embarrassed at my praise, Neptune is known for her extreme and seemingly random responses. 'don't want her getting the wrong idea... or even the right one for that matter, knowing her.' being that either way I was screwed, I decided to try and convince IF to not say a thing

"Look, i can only tell you if you can promise that you won't tell Neptune a thing, Goddess' knows how she'll react." I hope she'll agree, 'I don't want to lie but telling the truth about what I think about Neptune and Neptune being told is something I do not want.' After a few seconds of silence, she finally agreed "alright, I promise I won't tell Neptune." I couldn't see her hands, but I decided to trust that she didn't have her fingers crossed.

"in terms of first impressions, well to be honest she tugged at my heartstrings. When I caught her while she was falling out of the sky, she looked so innocent, so vulnerable that I felt the need to protect her. You want to know what her first words to me were? "are you an angel?" If not for the seriousness of the situation I think I would have died from cuteness overload. Of course, when she was treated and later woke up she was her usual self, though that wasn't a bad thing. On the contrary I like how she is, she might seem random and maybe straight up weird at times, but she never fails to make me smile. When we were facing the Kyuubi, I saw another side to her, a capable warrior, for someone who lost her memories and only recently became an adventurer she did amazingly well."

Speaking of how Neptune was in battle made me remember the deal I had made, the fact that I went through with it was enough for me to understand just how much I cared for the purple haired girl, even if she would never know of my sacrifice. "Hey, are you alright? you're starting to look sad." my thought process must have shown on my face because IF showed concern.

In reality, though I may not of mentioned it, I was still confused on how I felt regarding my now-permanently lost memories. I may not gave regreted my decision but the consequences still hurt to think about. In a way I made someone lose their son or their brother, whoever I once was, was gone. Something like this... I felt I needed to tell someone, if I kept it to myself, I would just eventually break down, potentially at a bad time. 'i suppose IF is the better of the three, the other two would just feel guilty, she's an experienced adventurer, maybe she'll understand.'

"How would you feel if you had to sacrifice everything about who you were as a person to save the lives of three innocent people? I wasn't the one to save you and Neptune, I wouldn't have made it in time. So, I made a deal with someone who could. That deal resulted in my lost memories being permanently forgotten. Whoever I was, a beloved son, brother or friend, was lost permanently the second I accepted that deal."

The look on her face was a mixture of shock and disbelief "How, how would accepting a deal do that? Who even did you make a deal with, Compa said you were the one to save us!" I couldn't blame her, if I was in her shoes I'd be just as bewildered. And so I continued. "in my soul, there resides another, his name is Rex, and he was the one I made the deal with. As I was then my wound wouldn't have healed in time, but Rex could take over my body, his soul was stronger than mine, and his aptitude with my abilities is greater than my own. He could succeed in saving you two as well as prevent that witch from harming Compa."

I took a deep breath before continuing "however taking over my body, even for a short amount of time, would overwrite my being with his. The result was my lost memories being lost forever. The look on her face changed, the shock disappeared, leaving only a look of utter seriousness. "As much as I don't want to, I can understand why you took the deal, it was either lose memories or indirectly have the blood of two-potentially three-innocent people on your hands." it seems I was correct in my assumption, IF-being a veteran adventurer- knew the value of life.

"i suppose I own you even more know." she tried to make a joke, even attempting a forced laugh. I didn't want her efforts to go to waste, so I force a smile, despite my downtrodden mood. "I Don't regret it at all, I care greatly for you three after all, but even then, sometimes the guilt gets to me, I had invertedly lost someone their loved one. Its irrational, I know but human emotions are like that. But as long as I get to see you, Compa and Neptune live happily, then I'll known I made the right decision."

I felt two slender arms wrap around my body "geez, saying stuff like that, are you sure you don't have a crush on any of us~" despite her teasing tone I could feel a warm wetness soak my clothes. 'Is she crying...why?' though I could not understand exactly why IF was getting as emotional as she was, I tried my best to comfort her, patting her head as I once did to Compa. "Maybe I do~, maybe I don't~" there was a few seconds of pure silence before I continued to speak "my thoughts about you, are that you are dependable and skilled. Being a veteran adventurer also helps your case, as I know I can count on you for reliable information and if I ever need help. Like the other two you're also very beautiful, I'd be surprised if you got rejected by anyone." seeing her current state with what we were mentioning, made me realise a change of subject was needed. Therefore, I defaulted to something I knew had never failed to get a laugh from someone or at least make them embarrassed: awkwardly flirting by telling the truth.

After a few minutes we separated, with IF looking much better than she was before (judging by the lack of tears and the slightly red face). Soon after, we continued looking for the monster disk, eventually finding it after slaying a... particular monster. 'Was that...a rabbit?' once the disk was found I let IF have the honour of breaking it, before we left to report to the guild.

Interlude 3-An adventure with Compa

One day Compa decided to drag me along on a quest through Virtua Forest. Our objective was to cull the local population of Dogoo's. After a few hours of constant searching and eradication of our targets, we decided to sit down and have a rest. It was during this rest that my companion initiated a conversation. "Hey Zeddy, what's going on with your hair? at first it was brown, then it turned orange when you went to save Nep-Nep and Iffy and now it's a mix of the two."

'Rex, explain' while I had no proof of any involvement of his, the fact that the colour change happened when he took over made me think he was at fault. 'it is simply a byproduct of my possession of you as well as due to continued use of Golden Trillion' his reply gave me the answer I needed "it's a byproduct of me using my power, don't worry." Compa smiled at my reply, hopefully being satisfied with my explanation. After resting for a few more minutes, we continued our hunt.

Eventually we came across a strange sight, a group of Dogoo's were surrounding an odd-looking egg. The object was oval-shaped just like a chickens' was, but it was bigger and covered in what looked like orange scales of varying shades. Whatever it was, it wasn't a normal egg. The potential for learning how monsters not spawned from the discs, act. Made the egg something worth protecting, at least for the sake of research. Before the monsters had a chance to look in our direction, me and Compa had already got rid of them, leaving only us, and the mysterious egg.

I decided to sit down near the egg and asked Compa (when she sat down next to me) what she thought about it, she only replied with a shrug of her shoulders. So both of us just sat there for a minute, not knowing what to do. That is until Rex decided to yet again provide some assistance. 'Perhaps if you were to try an incubate the egg it would hatch?' 'And pray tell, exactly how am I going to do that' 'create a flame using Golden Trillion and place it near the egg. The heat should warm it up and speed up the hatching process.'

Not able to think of anything better, I did exactly what he said, and I was surprised a moment later when his idea showed merit, as the egg began to shake for a moment before cracking and breaking completely, revealing in its entirety what lied within it. The creature that emerged was a strange mix of a lizard and a bird. The creature had 6 legs with clawed feet, a set of wings, two luminescent green eyes and a beaked maw. The entirety of its body was covered in a mix of scales and feathers that were coloured in various shades of orange with the tips of its feathers being green. It looked at me for a second before crawling into my lap, curling up into a circle and seemingly falling asleep.

I looked at Compa for guidance "Err, what just happened?" she giggled cutely before replying "i think it believes that you're its dad." teasing opportunity detected! "Does that make you its mother~" my implications had the desired effect as her face went red almost immediately, she then started mumbling incoherently for a moment before calming down and changing the subject "what should we name...it?" she paused, not knowing the gender of the beast. a quick check (which was difficult to do whilst also trying not to wake it) revealed it to be a male. "Him, this one is male" she took a moment to process that bit of information before replying again "well, what should we name 'him'?" that got me thinking, what would I name him? 'let's see, orange, bird-dragon-y lizard thing...' I was stumped for a moment before a name finally came to mind "Suzaku! we'll name him Suzaku." the name was the same as a legendary phoenix from a tale I read back in Leanbox, I thought the name was both fitting and pretty Damn cool (if I say so myself). Compa giggled again "if you say so Zeddy!" I took that as a sign of approval.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out, before returning to the guild to report our completed quest.

Interlude 4- Duel of protagonists

"taaaaakkeee this!" a sword clashed with mine, sparks flying from the steel of our blades. The amount of force and skill coming from my opponent was impressive, especially so considering her condition. "Quite the sword arm you have there, been working out, have you?" she smiled before replying "Naw, can't be bothered, maybe you're just weak~" unfortunately for her, the insult was ineffective "i don't think so, considering I'm not even using my power, I'd like to believe I'm doing well enough." as I implied this dual involved no magic or power enhancements, only our base abilities and identical steel swords. Unfortunately, that left me at a disadvantage. Being that ever since I arrived in this world, I've always used Golden Trillion when in combat. Thankfully it wasn't as if I was completely hopeless with a blade either, seeing as I was able to last this long. That being said if things went on how they were, I'd surely lose, as despite being an amnesiac Neptune was quite the competent fighter.

Once we both disengaged our blades and stepped back, Neptune suggested something "why don't we step it up a notch?" that idea got me smiling, finally I'd be able to stop holding back. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours~" she continued. Being the gentleman I was, I complied. Power flowed through me; the energy produced by Golden Trillion providing me with a massive boost. Within an instant both my usual triplet of blades and my wing were summoned. I then looked towards Neptune, anticipating her transformation. I was not disappointed as a flash of light enveloped her before quickly dissipating, revealing Neptune in her more mature transformed state. Looking at her hand she too had decided to forgo her previous weapon for her larger broadsword, the weapon surpassing mine in size. Before we continued our bout however, Neptune spoke once more. "Hey, no cheating. I only have one sword! You can't have three!" seeing her logic I dispelled two of my swords, leaving me with only one. "that's better!" she said before taking her usual battle stance. "Now then, let's begin!"

As expected, Neptune moved first. Her speed far surpassing how it was in her regular form. Expecting this I raised my blade defensively to block her incoming strike. The clash of our blades was loud, almost deafening, but we continued on. Most of our dual was an elaborate game of cat and mouse, wherein Neptune would actively stay on the offensive with unrelenting strikes whereas I blocked and countered. Every time I would create distance, she would ensure that it would quickly close. Thanks to my Septima I had no problem keeping up with her, even as she was now.

A problem eventually arose a while later, as I had found myself tiring whereas Neptune didn't look nearly as so. Whatever she did before she lost her memories gave her quite the endurance stat. But just because I was a bit tired didn't mean I would give up. Thankfully I had a trick or two up my sleeve. In my free hand I summoned a feather, before dashing back to create distance and throwing the object in Neptune's direction. Because she was focused purely on closing distance, The feather managed to land on her person, allowing for my next move. I focused on the feather I had thrown, teleporting me to it, and by extension placing me within centimetres of Neptune. Due to her surprise at my proximity, I was able to raise my sword up to her neck. "Surrender?" I asked smugly. "Hey you teleported, that's cheating!" "All is fair in love and war~" I quoted, smug smile intact "then so is this~" she leaned forwards and...kissed me? 'What the fu-' I was unable to finish that thought as Neptune had quickly brought her own blade up to my throat. "Surrender~" she stated, echoing my previous words. "That was cheating!" "So was you teleporting!".

"One of these things is not like the other!" by this point we had both dispelled our blades. "I was just using everything I had to my advantage, same as you~" as much as I hated to admit it, she had a point...but that didn't mean I was going to accept my loss. "Draw?" I suggested "Pffft, nope!" she replied, seeing as she wasn't going to agree, I took a page out of her book and took a step forward, wrapping my arms around her tightly, giving her a hug. "H-hey, no fair!" "You started it. Now then, draw?" it took a while for her to respond, whether it was her thinking it over or her just enjoying the hug, I didn't know. But eventually she relented "fine. it's a draw, happy now?" I smirked, giving her the best shit eating grin i could "Yup!".

She frowned at my smugness before transforming back into her normal self and deciding to jump onto my back. "What the heck are you doing?" she mirrored my previous smug look before replying. "Payback. Now my noble steed, to pudding!" not able to resist, I decided to humour her "where, exactly?" "In the direction of pudding!" "If you say so."

Interlude 5- girls' day out.

Brackets used to display thoughts to better define what are thoughts and what are quotes.

IF's POV

One day Neptune dragged Compa and I for a 'girls day out'-her exact words. Her reasoning had something to do with 'the main heroine must have some screentime with the female main characters'-again her exact words. I was originally going to decline, seeing as I wasn't interested in something so childish (what do you mean 'bullshit'? I'm telling the truth!). But the both of them decided to use a very dangerous weapon to convince me... the puppy dog eyes! And so unfortunately, I quickly folded like a house of cards in the wind. as we were walking outside, I asked Neptune where we were going. She then asked me if there were any arcades around. I responded yes, and she immediately demanded I take us there (you were the one to drag us out here idiot!).

Fortunately for Neptune, the arcade I knew of and took us to was one of the best in Gamindustri, the place having a variety of games both electronic and otherwise. The place was named after its owner, being called 'Litwacks arcade' (very basic, but true to its name). The second we got there I had to grip Neptune's collar to stop her running off and attempting to play the various games in front of us... despite not having any credits on her. Due to the fact that both Zed and I decided that Neptune was not allowed to handle money. At least not after she discovered where she could find pudding, being that she spent literal thousands of our funds on the stuff all within a single day.

Once I gave Neptune a small number of credits to spend on playing games, she ended up dragging Compa and I to a racing game that allowed three players. "Prepare to lose!" "Not a chance!" "Umm, good luck you two!". Our match was legendary! at least for me and Neptune. Compa as it turned out, sucked... very badly. As in she couldn't drive even when we had shown her the controls 8 times already, kind of bad. So, in the end it was just between me, Neptune and a few NPC's. Contrary to her amnesiac status Neptune was somehow unbeatable when it came to games, being that she snatched first place in the race from me all too easily.

"Neptune, how the heck are you so goddess' dammed good at this game, aren't you an amnesiac?" she replied almost instantly "well my dear iffy~ I'm the protagonist Of course. I'm unbeatable!" "If you say so Nep-Nep." "Don't encourage her, Compa!" we argued for a few minutes on why exactly she won so easily (personally I think she just got lucky!) before deciding on a different game. This one was a 1 vs 1 fighting game called 'Road Battlers', since we could only go against each other 1 vs 1 we played multiple rounds to ensure we all went against each other. Somehow Neptune kept up her winning streak, to the point where I had trouble not believing her claims. (How was she that good... HOW?). Eventually we decided to have a break from gaming and visit a nearby diner. The experience was enjoyable, seeing as we were all hungry and the food was good. Up until Neptune decided it would be a great idea to insult the waiter "hey mister waiter, your Mustache is weird? Why is it so big? Do you have buck teeth? Is that why?" "Umm Nep-Nep, you're being rude." "Be quiet Neptune, no being rude to our server!" thankfully he forgave us after we apologised (for Neptune it took a few minutes for her to finally understand that what she said was rude, before she did so).

After that troublesome event we had a friendly chat. "So iffy, what happened with the monster disc and the guild?" "Yeah, any suuper secret info ya can tell us?" (Why would I tell you secret info?) thankfully for the sake of their curiosity, I did in fact have non-classified information I was allowed to share. "After careful lab analysis the disk was discovered to be magical in nature and was programmed with an auto-summoning function that would make it summon monsters either periodically or when someone comes into contact with it...Neptune." the girl mentioned only gave a sheepish smile in response before I continued. "They weren't able to trace the magic signature due to the fact the sample was broken. but if we're able to send an intact disc, it's possible they would, and therefore be able to track down who made the damn things."

The both of them looked like they had many questions to ask about what I just said, my thoughts were proven right. "Hey iffy, what's a magic signature-thingy?" (How can she not kno-oh right, amnesia.) "a magic signature is residual magic energy-also known as mana-that is left behind when someone uses magic, or in this case the mana that was used to create the disc left behind a magic signature due to it being an automated summoning device that required the users' mana to function. With it being infused with mana in order to work, there would be a magic signature." Compa seemed in thought for a second before she spoke "maybe that's why that mean lady was there, to recharge the disc." the mention of that witch brought frowns to all our faces, but she did have a point.

"Maybe for that specific disc but remember the monster outbreak didn't just occur in that one dungeon, it happened all across Gamindustri. Either she made, programmed and distributed those discs herself, or more likely she had others creating them for her. We'll see if I'm right or wrong soon anyway, if she was the sole creator then the monster population should go down significantly now that she's dead and no longer able to provide mana for them." they both nodded in acceptance of my explanation. Wanting to change the subject I asked a question myself. "Hey Compa, where did you and Zed find that creature you came home with yesterday?" "You mean Suzaku? Me and Zeddy found him when he was still in his egg and surrounded by Dogoos, after dealing with the monsters the egg hatched. After hatching, Zaku crawled into Zeddy's lap, and the rest is history."

(Why the barebones explanation!?) though lacking in content, it did explain why Compa and Zed came home with a baby monster. "Who knew Zeddy would become a daddy so soon." Neptune's joke had us all laughing, though Compa went red in the face. (I'm sensing a story there.) thankfully for Compa, I didn't question it.

The rest of our day went smoothly, we hung out and walked around for a few minutes before heading back to Compa's house.

INTERLUDES END