The start of the new V-Tuber group called 'Holomyth' was a massive success and took the internet by storm. The five girls decided to celebrate their anniversary with a collaboration stream and afterward hang out together in a hanger which they own. This building was built in a place, where no humans were living nearby, as to not disturb these mythical beings. Every member bought themselves different pieces of cake and beverages. Kiara started the party by saying:
"Well girls. Once again, congratulations on our one-year anniversary!"
"Cheers!" everyone shouted with their beverages hitting each other.
"Wow, I can't believe that it has been a whole year since we started streaming." a relative young-looking girl with blonde hair, whose name was Amelia Watson, said.
"Yeah, right?" Calliope said. "I, personally, thought that it wasn't for me and I would quit after a few months or so. I am glad that we are still streaming as 'Holomyth' and are still continuing to do so."
"Yeah." Ina'nis continued. "But I find it a bit ironic that Ame and I are in Holo-'Myth' even though both of us are human."
"What do you mean?" Amelia asked. "We don't have to be part of another race to be mythical. Ina, your father is literally 'the' demon king"
"Adopted."
"Still child of 'the' demon king. And I can travel through time, which is a myth in itself."
"Pffff, riiiiight..." Gura laughed at Amelia. "I mean you can only see Calli because Kiara gave you some sort of special glasses."
"Which are now contact lenses."
"Well then, tell me, 'Time traveler', when will I become a queen and rule over the world?"
"Well, about that... I am afraid to tell you that my sole mission here is to travel back in time to prevent you from ever becoming a queen! Heh, heh, heh!"
"What!? Why? Why would you ever do something like this!?" Gura asked with a sad-looking face.
"Because..." Amelia's face was nearing Gura's. "...in the future, you took my last piece of cake."
"Okay... that is just a childish reason. For that, you are ruining my entire future!?"
"Oh Yes, my cake is that much more important than you. Heh, heh."
"Ame... How could you... I trusted you..."
"Now, now." Kiara intervened. "Ame, I did not invite you to Holomyth for you to execute your wildest revenge plan, did I?"
"Yeah, you're right." Amelia picked up a piece of her cake and put it on Gura's plate. "Here you go. I forgive you."
"Thank you. But can I get a different piece? I don't like this flavor."
"Me neither."
"Then why did you even buy that!?"
"Because it looked delicious when I bought it."
"Not only are you ruining my shining, bright future, but you are also using me as your garbage can!?"
"Well, it is surprisingly fitting whenever I visit your room." Ina'nis commented.
"It's not that dirty!"
"And what about your hoodie?" Calliope joined the bullying. "I gave you that on the day we first met, and you are still wearing it."
"Well, it was one of the first items I acquired on land. Besides, it is still comfy and it looks cool. Especially after those awesome design elements I added."
"Speaking of the past." Kiara mentally prepared herself for what she was about to say. "Gura, Ina. I am sorry. I know it is a bit too late, but I really wanted to apologize to you guys. I knew at that time that I shouldn't keep you as my employee any longer and that I should have let you go a long time ago." Tears were forming in her eyes as she continued with her apology. "But I was afraid when you were leaving that you would get lost, hurt and therefore feel a massive grudge against humanity."
"Woh, woh, woh..." Gura tried to calm her down. "Aren't you exaggerating?"
"Are you speaking from personal experience?" Ina'nis asked with a concerned expression. Kiara, who noticed her tears rolling down from her eyes, wiped her face with her sleeves.
"No." she answered calmly. "It is not mine. But from an old friend of mine. I truly hope that she is going to recover from her experience."
"What happened to her?" Ina'nis asked.
"Sorry, but I promised her to not tell anyone about what happened to her." "Well," Calliope tried to lighten up the mood.
"I am sure that you are helping her a lot. I mean during our time in KFP you worked less time than Gura. I bet you used that time to visit that friend of yours and help her recover."
"Ohhhh, that would make sense." Gura said. "For that, I demand a raise!"
"Okay." Kiara wiped another tear from under her eye. "Here you go. I did not like this one anyway." Kiara took one piece of her cake and put it on Gura's plate.
"I AM NOT A GARBAGE CAN!" Gura protested, which made everyone else laugh.
"Crazy times." Calliope said. "From meeting at KFP, working there and here we are having a successful YouTube career and still staying strong."
"By the way." Amelia wanted to ask some questions. "I know that Gura managed KFP, but what did you two do to earn some money from Kiara?"
"Weeeellll..." Calliope said as she was thinking about her past. "I originally started my hiatus of being a reaper because I needed a break from my mundane work."
"Taking people's life is mundane to you?" Ina'nis asked.
"Okay, hey, listen. Ehmmm... Do you like to do the same sh*t over and over and over again with no real end in sight, and the work you do becomes more and more boring with every passing minute?"
"Ehmmm... no. But I would not say that taking the life of your victims is mundane."
"Well whatever. I am a reaper that should not care about those things. Where was I? Ah yes, right. The first interesting thing I discovered was Gura. So I spent the first couple of weeks just getting to know her better. After that, I traveled the world to experience new things and have some diversity in my life. And every couple of months or so I came back to KFP to meet with the others. And because I often didn't have that much money, I helped Kiara with some chores at the restaurant... Mostly killing plenty of chickens because my way of killing them is apparently making the meat tastier or something like that."
"Ohhhh, that was your part-time job?" Ina'nis said.
"Wait, you didn't know?"
"Well, to be fair, I did not work at the place, but at home. He, he, he."
"Ok, NOW I am also interested. What did you do?"
"Weeeeeelllll. I originally intended to start a delivery service for KFP. My train of thought at that time was because I loved to interact with everyone in the demon realm, then I would also love to interact with humans here. Oh boy, was I wrong. First, I did not learn any mannerisms here, at all. So my greeting back then wasn't very appropriate, thank you very much, Kiara."
"When we first met, you greeted me with a 'hello'. I don't see the problem here." Kiara said as she took a bite from her cake.
"Well, my first customers didn't like to be greeted by 'May your soul be sacrificed for the great Demon king!'"
"Oh yeah, that was a thing."
"So I got traumatized on the first day by a customer, who pointed a gun at me and screamed that I should go away and die."
"Ohhh. Inaaaaaa." Kiara put her plate away and hugged Ina'nis. "I am so sorry."
"I don't mind it anymore. It showed me that I was not ready for this kind of job, which is why I closed this service the next day. I then became the artist of KFP and drew many things like redesigning logos or the menu. My latest project was a KFP comic. It was fun while it lasted, but that was not the reason dad sent me here. And when I heard Gura asking to become a streamer, I thought that I should become one too. I mean, I would interact with many humans."
"Indirectly." Amelia commented.
"One baby step at a time. By the way, we all shared our past, but we haven't heard anything about your past... future... future past!"
"Not much to tell." Amelia said while munching on her cake. "I invented time travel and came here to hang out with you guys."
"The details, Ame, details." Gura said. "What is the future like? Are we finally getting lightsabers? Oh, wait, am I going to be a laser shark?"
"Not that I know of. I mean, weaponizing light consumes a ton of energy, which we most likely cannot get from electricity. Therefore, we have to find an alternative source of energy like..."
"Okay, my bad. Sorry, but I would rather not be lectured by your boring science lesson again." Gura took a bite from the piece of cake that Amelia gave her. "By the way, this tastes better than expected."
"Okay girls, enough of the past." Kiara tried to change the topic. "Let us talk about our future and our goals. My goal is that we are still having such a blast as HoloMyth."
"Oh, we are holding this kind of conversation now." Calliope said. "I see, I see. May I add my goal as well. One of which is the same as Kusotori. I wish for us to continue as HoloMyth and have lots of fun. My other goal is to have many collaborations, especially in the music department, with old and future friends." Everyone cheered and clapped for them. Then Ina'nis took her turn:
"My goal is also the same as Kiara. My other goal is to go outside my comfy home and have a proper social activity with people besides you guys." Everyone cheered again.
"Well," Gura struggled to find the right words. "I will continue this trend by saying that one of my goals is also the same as Kiara. As for my other goal, however... I miss my old home very much. I know that I cannot return to it but... I still miss it." Tears are slowly forming in Gura's eyes.
"Hey, Gura." Calliope tried to comfort Gura. "I get you. Never being able to see your family ever again is quite vexing. And no one can replace them for you. But you still have us here, supporting you in any way we can. Here you can have this."
Calliope gave Gura one piece of her cake, as did Ina'nis.
"Thank you." Gura said. "And sorry for being a party pooper."
"Don't be sorry." Amelia said. "It is normal to worry about your family. Let us finish our round here, shall we? I believe it's my turn, right? Well, as for my goa..." Suddenly, she stopped breathing for a moment, as her plate with her cake fell to the ground. She gasped painfully for air afterward, her eyes widened, and her hand grabbed her chest as she slowly sank to the floor.
"Ame?" Gura asked, confused. Before Calliope and Ina'nis realized what was happening, Kiara dashed to Amelia, helping her to safely lie down on the ground. With her left hand, she engulfed the back of Amelia's head with orange flames to heal any of the brain damage she was currently suffering. However, it was not enough to keep her conscious. Amelia already lost her sense of touch, smell, and hearing and her view was becoming darker as well. She, however, noticed an orange silhouette hovering above her. It belonged to Kiara, who relentlessly asked Amelia about her status and desperately tried to keep her conscious.
"Leviantis... Attack..." Amelia tried to warn them with her last breaths. Her words, however, only reached Kiara. "Protect... Gura..." She lost consciousness. Kiara, who was still healing her head, tried to keep her awake:
"Ame. Oi, Ame, keep it together. What are you warning us about?"
"Is she..." Gura had problems keeping her calm.
"NO!" Kiara and Calliope answered.
"She just lost consciousness." Kiara added.
"But what happened?" Calliope asked. "Few minutes ago she seemed fine, and now it looked like she had a heart attack."
"Let's put her in bed, and then I can tell what I think just happened here." Kiara lifted Amelia up and together with the others she went to the nearby bedroom where she put her down on the bed. She kept her left hand under Amelia's head to continue her treatment. Kiara took a deep breath and began her explanation:
"I believe that these are some side effects of time travel."
"Wait." Gura was trying to understand what was happening right now. "You are telling us that Ame just traveled back in time!?" Kiara hesitated a bit then answered:
"Yes."
"And she traveled here to warn us about something or am I wrong?" Ina'nis asked.
"No, you are right."
"And what is her warning?" Calliope asked. Kiara hesitated again.
"Apparently Leviantis' are going to attack us and that you, Gura, are in danger. Gura?" As soon as Gura heard the name leviantis she began to have a cold sweat, her body became very stiff and became a little dizzy. She used her right hand to cover her mouth.
"Is this some sick joke?" Gura asked. "Do YOU really think that this is funny?"
"Do you really think that I find it funny to threaten us with deadly Atlantean killer robots?" Kiara countered.
"Why do you know this? I have not told anyone on the surface about this? And didn't you claim about 10 years ago that you thought that Atlantis was just a myth? Yet, you know what a leviantis is. So how do you know this?" Kiara said nothing. "HOW? TELL ME KIARA!"
"Ame told me."
"And how does she know?" Kiara said nothing again. "KIARA!"
"It's classified. You should better not know this." Gura stared at Kiara in disbelief.
"Fine." she said. "Then I go look somewhere else to get a job."
"Wait Gura..."
"If I can't trust you anymore, why should I stay here?"
"Ok, fine, you wanna know how she knows about it? In the near future, there is a great war between all the races. And one of these races is the Atlanteans." Shocked from the sudden news, everyone remained silent for a few seconds.
"Wait." Calliope said. "Are Reapers also part of this 'great war'?" Kiara nodded.
"But why did Ame come back here?". Gura asked. "Just to have fun with us? I mean, there is a great war coming, and she didn't bother to warn the world about it? What are her reasons?"
"Please." Kiara was desperately trying to beg. "There is a reason. So please just trust her. Because what is going to come is something that neither of us here are going to like."
"Neither of us are going to like?" Calliope repeated what Kiara just said. "Kusotori, you and Ame kept that a secret from us for a long time and didn't bother to attempt to tell us. Why? Why did Ame tell you that and not us? Are we so untrustworthy?"
"That is not the problem. The truth is so cruel and too hard for anyone here to accept."
"Except for you, I presume. And tempering with time also seems to be ok, since Ame is the inventor and can play god?"
"Ok, Calli, please stop."
"With what? Not trusting you? You are risking our lives for whatever selfish reasons you may have, and you two are not even bothered to get our consent..."
"We have your consent!" Kiara screamed with tears in her eyes. "Ame got our consent and a mission from our futures selves. She is only allowed to talk to me about this stuff and to keep you in the dark." Calliope was speechless for a few moments.
"What benefit does it bring?"
"You will see. So please, just trust in her. I beg you."
"Proof?"
"Huh?"
"Did she show you any kind of proof that what she said was true?" Kiara said nothing. "And you just believed her?"
"Wait, she showed me a proof." Kiara said, which made Calliope sigh.
"Kusotori, you know, we spent so many years together that I can tell whenever you are obviously lying, right?" Kiara's heart skipped a beat. "And you know you should fix the habit of blindly trusting strangers. As for her..." Calliope turned to Amelia and moved towards her. However, Ina'nis put herself between the reaper and the time traveler.
"Calli, stop. Don't take her life." the human said.
"Was not going to, but thanks for the idea." Bloodlust emitted from the Grim Reaper's Apprentice.
"Seriously, stop! We don't know for sure what Ame claims is true or not. However, I have a spell to detect any kind of lies. When Ame wakes up, we can ask her about it and check whether she was telling the truth or not." Calliope calmed down.
"Sounds like a plan. Sorry, but it appears that I cannot trust this certain time traveler currently." Ina'nis and Kiara both sighed from the relief. However, Ina'nis went to Kiara and whispered:
"We have a lot to talk about later." Kiara silently nodded.
"Let us no longer dwell on this matter." Ina'nis said. "It will probably take a while for Ame to wake up. Instead, let us concentrate on what is important now. Her recent time travel with its warning. She claimed that killer robots are coming to attack us, which sounds ridiculous, but for the sake of our safety we should assume that this event is going to happen. For now, we should gather as much information about these things as we can. So Kiara, please tell us everything that you know about these... what are they called again?"
"Leviantis." Kiara said as she was collecting her thoughts. "And to be honest, I don't know much about them. I just know that they are extremely dangerous and are using water as a weapon. That is about it. Maybe Gura can tell us more, right?"
"Not that much." Gura answered, while still shivering. "My knowledge comes from children's stories. Leviantis may have sentient AI and could act independently. However, what weapons they use depends on the version of the story? Some claim that they have a disintegration beam, which could destroy anything, and some claim that they use a giant sword. I also did not read every version of it. So, sorry, but I can't tell you that much."
"It is better than nothing. Please tell us everything you know about their weapons and let us prepare for the worst."
"Ok... Well, in one version, they have..." A few feet away from the bed, the ceiling suddenly broke and fell to the ground with five strange-looking white robots landing on the floor. Their shells shared a similar design pattern, however each one of them had different parts attached to them. Two of them had a sword as their right arm, one had a head that looked like a speaker, one had something embedded in their torso that looked like a red gem and one had legs that looked like the chains from a chainsaw. But all of them had a short cannon looking thing attached to their left arm. Despite most of the members having never seen one before, they immediately realized that they are the leviantis Amelia warned them about. Without any hesitation, Kiara stopped Amelia's treatment and dashed towards the group of intruders. She engulfed her arms with orange flames and jumped at the nearest leviantis. The flame on her left arm was taking the shape of a shield and manifested itself as such, while the other flame became a sword which she used to strike at the killer robot in front of her. This leviantis, however, didn't budge and no dent was left behind at its body. It raised its sword arm and swung at her. Kiara protected herself with her shield but got pushed back by the force. When collecting herself, she noticed that her left arm was broken and that the other robots were aiming at her with their cannons. She let go of her sword and raised her shield with her right hand to protect herself from whatever they were going to shoot at her. White beams were leaving the cannons, penetrating her shield and disintegrating most of her left arm, her right hand and a lot of the left side of her torso. Kiara screamed from the pain for a bit, then ground her teeth and focused herself on regenerating her missing parts, as her left side was on fire. The beams would also hit the other girls behind her. However, Calliope had already summoned her scythe and was moving towards the fight. She cut the beams, which were merged into one, in half and the blackish flames, her weapon created, evaporated the halves into steam. She dashed through it and swung at the same leviantis Kiara fought before. It swung its sword arm and clashed with the scythe. For a moment, it looked like both warriors were at a standstill, however as soon as Calliope activated the flames on her blade, she was able to cut through the sword. Ready to take another swing, Calliope was about to cut another part of this robot when she suddenly was hit by an invisible force that pushed her back. While flying back, she searched for the source of the force and found out that the bot with the strange head was using sound waves to push her back. She pushed her feet on the ground to slow her down and stopped next to Kiara.
"What about Amelia's treatment?" she asked.
"She'll survive." Kiara answered. Her body grew back her missing parts. She picked up her sword, which slid to her with the help of the sound waves. She stood up and got herself ready for the fight.
"I don't think you should fight." Calliope said as she was going in position with her scythe.
"Believe me, I can fight when I have the right tools. However, we should not forget to protect these three behind us." Kiara looked behind her and saw as Gura and Ina'nis stood still there and didn't dare to move an inch. "We should not forget Ame's warning: Protect Gura and Ina."
"Wait, Ina?" The leviantis with its broken sword dashed toward these two fighters. Both of them put their guards up when they suddenly hear Gura screaming. During the clash, Gura relived her traumas. Her parents constantly told her the story about a group of leviantis that have gone mad over the centuries. They felt betrayed by their creator and declared war against Atlantis. They began to hunt down its citizens and use them as their energy source. According to her Mom, they prefer to eat children as they are easier to hunt and to digest than adults. Over the years Atlanteans were able to defend themselves from them and reduce their numbers but with many sacrifices. However, many believed that there were still many left who were lurking in the dark, waiting for the perfect moment to snatch the unsuspected victims. Gura watched many horror movies with this particular setting, which gave her nightmares. She once got kidnapped in an alleyway, where her kidnapper claimed to be a leviantis. She got rescued, and the suspect was an Atlantean however the trauma still lived on in her heart. When she saw the real thing suddenly appearing in front of her and easily overpowering her strongest friends, a cold shiver ran down her spine and a voice inside her whispered: "Run." With a giant scream, Gura dashed to the nearest door and ran away from the building as far as she could. Overtaken by her instinct, she couldn't hear Kiara shouting "Gura, wait!" She had only one thought in mind: "Run." So she ran, ran as far and as fast as she could until she crashed into a wall. She fell down on her butt and when she raised her head she saw that she didn't hit a wall but a leviantis. It moved its left arm towards Gura and shot a white beam directly at her face.