A bit of a filler chapter to explain what happens after Cid's little adventure.

'Fu-u-uck, what happened yesterday?…'

That was Cid's first thought after waking up in Victoria's embrace. The elf girl watched him with happy puppy's eyes and was all ready for anything he wanted to do. The problem was, what he wanted to do was to remember what he did! Actually, yeah…

"Hey, Victoria," he made a charming smile.

"L-L-Lord Shadow took me into his embrace… and slept with me… ahh…" understandable, Victoria's brain is offline.

"Victoria?…"

"Ah, sorry, Lord Shadow!"

With a sigh he went out of the bed (Shadow Trail is cool) and looked over himself. Hmm, everything seems pretty fine, better than ever, actually, if his feelings are to be trusted.

However, the problem of not remembering what happened still remained. He can briefly remember that he went out to fight the Serpent, then… blank. Almost blank; some scenes flashed before his eyes, but other than that, nope…

Hold up, didn't they make an auto-filling diary that would record everything he does? If so, then it should be in his Soul Space!

He immediately went into his little world, only to be met with Hams' and Todd's judging stares. After realizing that he doesn't know his faults, Hams sighed and took out a large scroll. Before Cid could even think for what such a big thing would be needed, Hamster started reading everything. And the longer it went, the more uncomfortable Cid felt.

What Hams read was the list of all potential goodies that Cid missed during… what, world travelling? Their technology isn't even finished, what world-travelling is Beast talking about?… Oh, so they perfected it… How the fuck?! Hello, give him the diary already!

After finally receiving the book of revelations, Cid started remembering what, exactly, happened. Apparently the sly Serpent decided to make him drunk, however, Cid managed to outplay it… Somehow. After that they became buddies and it helped him finish the portal project, which was now all ready to help him travel whenever and wherever he wants to. That's cool.

Also they somehow met two more guys that helped them out, one of them even left books about Interworld and navigation in it! For that Hams was happy and already made a draft of what should they do to maximize their profits.

But upon finishing the last parts Cid realized why his Inner Beasts were so angry. He didn't even take an example of anything he and buddies did! Sure, diary diligently recorded everything, and Hams himself managed to copy most parts, but the problem was, they did not have a single piece of anything they made! No dragon-mice, no shipgirls, nothing! And Cid even used some of his Faith for these! No profit, only losses!

Well, it's not like they didn't gain anything out of it, right? A lot of precious knowledge, new technology (even if it's in paper stage), and connections with his new buddies! They should come up again sometime later… Right, ignore Todd's croaks.

Now for the yummy parts: his Soul has finally stabilized. Hams noted that during all this time his Soul was actively leaking all overflowing energy, be it magic, Faith, or something entirely different that they had no clue about as of yet. How does it go usually? When energy overflows, part of it is sent out in the environment, while the other part stays and tries to compress itself to fit into the system. However, Cid's Soul was damaged after Sanctuary binding. Most energy went to fix the damage, and everything else… well, leaked. And usually, that would not do anything bad; well, yeah, it leaks, but it can't be so bad, right?

Well, turned out, it could. Earth's newfound magic was still in practically infancy stages, weak and uninspiring… And now Cid comes in, with reserves large enough that Earth's whole magic energy would only fill up to 80% of his reservoir. But that's whole energy! Earth itself is much, much bigger than him! Which means that at any place he stands, the amount of magic energy would be minuscule and practically non-existent.

So, his leaked energy easily overpowered the environmental. That's bad, right? Well, Cid said 'could'. In practice, however, he almost immediately went into teacher mode, with his thoughts fully being about it; all the leaked energy took after his emotions and thoughts and made a positive environment that allowed him to teach anyone with increased efficiency, and even those who studied by themselves (like Victoria) would experience a large boost in their learning capabilities. So, he found a cheat, right?

For that Hams took out "Losses" scroll and pointed to the end: each day he did this teaching thing, he would lose 10% percent more Faith than he got. Yes, Faith, because it was Faith energy that allowed him to do all of that.

However, who was Cid? He did all the insane stuff even before getting Faith energy, so he will just create something that would work the same way, but without using Faith!

Thought Wisdom Cube technology was really hard to make, according to Beasts' words: not only did it require a soul to create one shipgirl, but it also required a lot of beliefs from which the personality would be made.

Hams also remembered something interesting about Faith and beliefs and pointed it out: apparently, just like his leaked energy took after his thoughts and wishes, so did the Faith from his believers was, so to say, "colored". And when it was stored in the Pylons, it was all good: with passage of time it slowly lost the "coloration", and only pure Faith remained. Now, however, all Faith went into his Soul Space. And his Soul Space was, well, Soul's Space, which meant that Faith could affect him. In fact, as Hams pointed out, that's exactly what happened: after being seen as high and mighty leader of Shadow Garden first, then as Divine Spirit later, he took after these models. This was the reason behind his strange actions in the past weeks. In fact, Hams predicted, if things are left as they are, five to six years later there would be no Cid Kagenou, only Shadow!…

Well, that were the predictions when his Soul was injured: now even hundreds of years would not affect him. However, Cid wasn't one to leave something dangerous like that in the open, and so they sat down to think about the solution.

How easy was it when only magic existed; just practice every day until you can't even stand anymore and be happy! Now they had to make something that would purify the Faith energy, just like the Pylons. Some time later, Cid realized: why complicate stuff? They already have different containers, right? Just store pure Faith like usual, while filtering all the emotional "coloration" and storing it other place!

Todd calculated something and realized that it would make them lose 10% of their total Faith and emotional energy. Of course, Cid did not care about that; since when does he need that many, anyway? If he uses the amount left efficiently, even this would be too much for him!

Now time to work on that: sorry, Victoria, Nishimura, he will come up later!

"Hic!"

"Tzeentch?! Are you drunk?! How?!"

"Oh, ya won't believe it, I met some interesting people out there! They actually were calling me! I went to check out of curiosity, and what do you know? Manifestation of Concept, Madness-related deity from another dimension and… Uh, I don't even know who it was? Human, apparently?"

"Not funny."

"I am serious, Slaanesh! This guy looked me in the eyes and the only thing he thought was "Damn, that's an intimidating look! Gotta copy that later"; moreover, he also somehow collected Faith!"

"Sounds like an interesting toy for a cycle or two…"

"Well, good luck with searching him, then. Because even I somehow lost this guy, hic!"

"So, how did you get drunk, again…?"

"Oh, that Manifestation of Concept…!"

Gamer was in depression.

His newly sent group of shee- Players met with unexpected surprises. For instance, almost everyone sent into the Akatosh's (not actually his, but the Primordial Two don't do shit in ruling over Nirn, anyway) domain were wiped out by dragons. That wouldn't be so bad, if not for the fact that every dragon looked like mouse-girl! And Players got baited by that! Now he lost 5122 pawns, just in Nirn.

The one with best mind-related abilities was supposed to take over the God-Emperor of Mankind, but apparently exactly at this moment his soul finally decided it's time to come back, and his pawn was absorbed. And that wouldn't be so bad, if it was not for the fact that part of pawn's knowledge was absorbed, too! Now God-Emperor was hellbent on purging the heresy that was Gamer and his System. Or should he say Goddess-Empress?…

There was also apparently some kind of minor deity called Green Serpent that offered his strange brew that was 100% alcoholic, but gave insane buffs. Some Players even decided to pledge their alliance to it instead of him! Well, if only they bothered to read the contract when pressing "Yes" in System's Proposal, they would realize that accepting help of other deities if it was not arranged by Gamer and that deity was forbidden. In next reincarnation, they will be stripped of the System, all the powers they managed to get, and even their Soul's evolution. Good luck reincarnating, sheep! You would be lucky to become a worm! Read the contracts next time!

"It was this way, right?"

"Correct, Observer."

"Continue moving."

"What do we do with the world we meet?"

"Conquer. Either through war or negotiation. We are to present the results of our work to our Creator."

"Understood, Observer."

Alpha sighed. It was the seventh day since Master Shadow's departure. Of course, they were able to continue their operations, but… She missed him.

Rose Oriana finally managed to unite everyone under her iron (almost literally, if not for the fact that her clothes are a slime suit) fist. Any noble that tried to object her rule was met with harsh punishment. For that Shadow Garden allowed to use some of their people; it was good for them, too, as a lot of officials in Oriana Kingdom were tied to Cult of Diablos. They also sent the former king back into the country; their best doctors tended to him, after all, so he has almost recovered.

Iris Midgar seemingly took her loss with dignity and was now opening up the negotiations with Rose Oriana… though considering their cordial relationships before Rose's ascension to the throne it should be a given that peace will be in place.

Annerose and Beatrix were still waiting for Shadow to come back and let them fight him without holding back; Beatrix also wished to meet with Alpha, but was content with just knowing that Alpha had a good life. It seems like aunt didn't know about Alpha's possession and simply thought she disappeared or, worse, was kidnapped… It warmed young elf's heart.

Aurora, or Diablos herself, was slowly getting accustomed to a peaceful life. In fact, other than going on a nice stroll in the forest and having an interesting book to read she did not have many wishes. Well, if we don't include a wish to meet with Cid.

Hah, she really misses him… Hmm?

Alpha blinked as an unnaturally large squirrel made its way into the office room. It scrutinized her and, seemingly content, took out a letter. Alpha carefully took it and revealed its contents:

'I will come back soon. Get ready. Hope you have something fun on your mind!'

She smiled. Well, it seems like her dreams will become a reality soon…

"Hey, Hams?" Cid asked once they finished the primitive filter system.

"Yeah?" Hams promised to upgrade it, but that would take a week or two.

"You see that too?" for now, though, Cid felt fine.

"Oh, he was like that since beginning," except for one part.

Cid watched with twitching eyes as Todd bowed and prayed in front of self-made altar. The altar itself was surrounded in piles of money and precious gems, with Gamma's photo at the center. Yes, his Beast of Greed was bowing to the picture of the woman that made an economic hegemon in less than two years. Well, Cid had a feeling that if things went differently, he would be secretly praying to Gamma, too…

Hold up!

"Hams, what's that in your laboratory?"

"Uhh…" Hamster started sweating… somehow.

"No, don't tell me you too!"

A quick glance revealed yet another altar, this time with various devices around it and Eta's photo in the middle. Yeah, of course, Beast obsessed with science is praying to the lead scientist of Shadow Garden… It's fine!

Hams quickly calmed himself down and went on the offensive: he claimed that Cid has long neglected the most important part! Upon receiving a question about the part, Hams went into the mood and started saying that Seven Shades are such good girls: do everything in their power to make Cid happy, go along with everything he says, make an organization just because he once said that he wanted to fight against Cult of Diablos, and so much more! They're just ideal, right?

Cid thought about it and realized that, indeed, girls pretty much laid their life for him: Alpha organized everything in his organization, Beta dug out the ancient books so he can read them, Gamma made an economic powerhouse for him, Delta was pretty content with being his pet, Epsilon infiltrated all the noble circles so he can have the most recent information, Zeta trailblazed the unknown territories to find new stuff for him, Eta created inventions out of his words (most of which he himself didn't have proper knowledge about at the time)…

Yeah, Seven Shades were great! He was even feeling a bit ashamed for thinking about them as mere roleplay friends… They loved him!

Upon receiving confirmation Hams nodded in satisfaction and took out a suspiciously large box. Led by curiosity, Cid slowly opened it.

You can imagine his shock when the box revealed seven marriage rings.

For anyone who wants to say that Hams is the goat: no, he is hamster.