You and I

“Not quite a level…” John mumbled to himself, looking at the cash and experience he had earned from the barrier. The experience from the creatures he took no part in killing was reduced by 90%, but he got the full cash and some drops. The epic drops he had gotten from the first kill bonus were the Earth Essence and Fiery Essence.

John, are you aware of the interaction elementals have with elemental essences? Cinder asked, appearing beside him floating just above the ground. Elizabeth and Mandruzzo were getting into another argument behind them, but he decided to listen to Cinder instead.

No, why? Can you feed on them? John replied, eyeing the orbs of energy in his inventory, one a jittery mass of red, orange, yellow, and blue, the other a solid pulsing brown and black.

In a manner of speaking. By absorbing fiery essence, I can grow stronger. I believe it would result in another level, to use your terms. If I were to absorb the earthen essence, my level would not change, but with enough of it I would eventually become a magma elemental. Duo elementals are often stronger than their single element counterparts, Cinder explained, unperturbed by the growing argument behind them.

Taking precaution to form Mana Construct gloves, the essences appeared in John’s hands. The fire was weightless and felt as though it might melt through his glove. The earth was heavy, and cracks spiderwebbed over his glove. He held them out to her. What do you want?

I’ve been a pure fire elemental since my creation. It is the form I am comfortable in, and it is the one I’d like to keep, Cinder replied, taking off her hat and holding it to her chest. Her plasma hair spilled in strands across her face, like sunbeams made physical.

Abigail, who had focused on the increasingly loud shouting match up until this point, sidestepped away from Mandruzzo and Elizabeth and toward John and Cinder. Her eyes shifted toward them as Cinder reached toward the fire in John’s hands.

Then that’s probably what’s best for your power and our sanity, John answered, tossing the orb of barely-stable fiery energy into Cinder’s hands and pocketing the other essence.

The moment the fiery essence made contact with her plasmic skin, thin, blue flames raced up her arm in a double helix. The trail stopped at the place her heart would be, absorbing into the piece of the fire plane that lived within her and strengthening her connection to it. The bullseye that replaced her face glowed a brilliant white before dimming at once. The cropped jacket she wore morphed from coal black to a similarly dark shade of red.

Cinder has absorbed a fiery essence! She has progressed 1% toward ascending (Next Form: ???).

Cinder has gained 25,000 EXP! Level up! Stat points are distributed automatically.

John and Abigail both went wide-eyed at the dramatic but not very transformative process Cinder just underwent. Abigail ignited her hand, studying the flame therein and holding it up to Cinder’s body. “Do you think I could do that?”

“In my time, it was not unheard of for elementalists who practiced a single element to use essences to draw power from their favored plane. Back then it was rare; in the modern era it could be a lost art or commonplace,” Cinder replied, returning her hat to her head and retreating inside of John.

Elizabeth zipped to the edge of the barrier to get out, and Mandruzzo skated away, sweeping bubbles into his path. John looked between the two of them, then back to the brawler. “What was that about?”

“They were arguing over who did better, then they started insulting each other. Mandruzzo said something like ‘you’re the opposite of someone like John, you’re a coward,’ and then Elizabeth said something about him being too flashy to fight unlike you and me. That’s all I heard before Cinder did the thing,” Abigail explained, glancing at each direction their brief teammates went.

“Yeah, so I don’t think we’re going to be working with them again, at least not at the same time. They’ve got issues,” John said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You’d think the constant threat of **** might dissuade Abyssals from getting into arguments like that.”

“We weren’t in any real danger here though! Those things were pushovers. Are you sure they were supposed to be our level?” Abigail asked, slipping her hand inside of her leafy shirt and coming out with her phone.

“Definitely. I guess with all the equipment I have and the status effects and skills everyone else had, we punch way above our weight class. These guns were millions of dollars, I’m not surprised,” John replied, holstering his pistols and looking at the two giant lizard carcasses.

“So were these,” Abigail said, flexing her biceps with a smug smile and a wink. The steel leaves which made up her blouse struggled against her iron arms. The motion also pressed her sizable breasts into her shirt, and if she were a bit more muscular or a bit more well endowed, it might have begun to rip.

John burst out laughing, looking at his muscular friend with equal parts admiration and joy. Even if the others made it more of a challenge, he was glad for the time they had spent together. He pulled her into a hug which she gladly accepted.

“Being in the Rider-Waites has been… really hard. Something goes wrong on every contract. I’ve almost died so many times. I feel so tired of it already. But the people I’ve met… Elizabeth, Jackie, Phoebe, Olivia, Grace, you… it makes it feel more worth it. That and the people we meet on our contracts. I’ve saved so many lives, and I’ve got a bunch of cool shit now. It’s definitely not all bad,” John said, slipping his mask off and stroking his chin.

“Why don’t we take a break?” Abigail asked, taking his hand and laying in the grass beside him. She turned her phone off and slipped it back into her shirt. Despite his ****, he was pulled down with her. “Slow down, John.”

“If you’re telling me that, it means I really need to,” he said, putting his hands behind his head and joining her in watching the clouds lazily float across the sky. “Hey don’t you think that one looks like a pixie?”

“Oh yeah! And that one looks like the convoy the merchant had!” Abigail said, pointing at a roughly rectangular cloud.

“You’re not wrong,” John laughed, and the two spent the next hour or so cloud watching and occasionally teasingly arguing over what they actually looked like. Opening up the edit barrier menu, he made it much smaller and set it to private, to prevent anyone from stumbling upon it.

Much to his surprise, after some time, a notification in the corner of his vision informed him that someone was trying to enter the barrier. He stiffened beside Abigail, possibilities running rampant in his mind. It could be Mandruzzo or Elizabeth, but that feels unlikely. Why...

“Something wrong?” Abigail asked, rising up onto her elbows and looking down at his closed eyes and creased face.

“Someone’s trying to get in. We should leave,” John explained, sitting up. He readied to leave, but Abigail grabbed his shoulder.

“Open it up, John. Trust me,” Abigail said, laying back down and encouraging him to do the same.

Why would I do that? Half the people I meet want to kill or exploit me. But… I trust Abigail, John thought, setting the barrier to public. A vague figure with light pants and a dark shirt appeared in the distance, but John recognized her immediately.

“Jenny!” John exclaimed, springing up and running toward her. He met her with a tight hug that picked her up off her feet, and she kissed him, her arms moving up to rest atop his shoulders. “What are you doing here? I thought you had work today.”

“I always have time for you, Johnny,” Jenny said, kissing him again, “and we want to talk to you.”

“Both of you? What’s up?” John asked, sitting back down on the grass. Jenny sat on his left, taking his hand in hers. Abigail sat on the right.

“I love you, John,” Jenny said, putting her head on his shoulder and looking into his eyes when he turned to her. The two shared a brief kiss before she continued, “But I also kind of love Abigail?”

“Well- if you- I mean- I don’t-”

“Me and her aren’t there yet. But I adore her in the same way that I do you. I think you do too. We’ve been talking a lot, and I want her to be a part of our relationship,” Jenny said, squeezing his hand. Beside him, Abigail took his other hand in hers, looking at him with hope in her eyes.

John thought about all the times he had stumbled upon them spending time together, and wondered if he should have seen this coming. He had woken up with Abigail in their bed after all.

“You mean like boyfriend-girlfriend-girlfriend? Is polyamory a thing in the Abyss?” John asked, looking between the two women. I definitely care a lot about Abigail. But like that? I’d been so focused on my relationship with Jenny that I hadn’t really thought about it.

“Depends on who ya ask,” Jenny laughed, cuddling closer against him and whispering in his ear, “besides, you can’t tell me you haven’t thought about getting her in bed. All the girls we’ve fucked have been soft like me, but she’s ripped enough to give you a run for your money. We fight for control a lot, do you think her muscles are just for show?”

Her words had the intended effect, and his pants tightened as he mulled them over. “I have a couple of questions. Why wasn’t I a part of this discussion? We’re supposed to be a team, Jenny, and you putting this on me out of nowhere doesn’t feel right.”

“I’m sorry, Johnny. I wanted to make sure it was what I really wanted before I told you about it. You know how I can get. I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t get jealous of you two… but I love you. And I trust you. And I love her.”

John felt Abigail burn hotter in his hand, her hand clutching his tighter. Were he mundane, the heat of her hand might have burnt him. Instead, Fire Away nullified the small HP per second that her heightened emotions inflicted. To him, it didn’t hurt at all. It reminded him of their sparring matches, fighting with and for each other. It reminded him of the second person he saw in Crow’s illusion; whatever Crow’s magic had done, it knew before even he did that he cared about Abigail and Jenny more than anything in the world. It reminded him that life in the Abyss is nasty, brutish, and short, prone to end at any moment.

It made him realize that she was a bright sun in his otherwise bleak days. It made him realize that he already couldn’t imagine his life without her; whenever things went wrong, she was by far the most friendly and dependable person he had ever known. It made him realize that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with both of them.

“Abigail, how do you feel? You have feelings for both of us?” John asked, her burning hand a comforting heat in his palm.

“I didn’t know what life was going to be like after I left home. My whole life it was me, my sister, and my dad. I wanted to see the world, meet people, make friends. But I was worried. My sister visited us every once in a while, and she told me that the Abyss wasn’t as bright as I hoped it was. I think she was just worried about me. She wanted me to be ready for the world. I wasn’t sure I was. But you two have helped me so much. I really feel like I can be myself with you two.” Abigail was staring at the ground as though it might kill her as she spoke, but finally drew the resolve to look at them as she finished, “I want to be with you.”

Abigail was holding his hand tight enough that it began to hurt, and he lifted his hand up, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. “I do think I love you, Abigail.”

“I love you guys so much!” Abigail yelped, launching herself at the pair in a tight embrace. She kissed John again, and this time when he responded in kind, she melted into his arms. Happy tears streamed down her face, quickly burning off.

Howling with laughter, Jenny disentangled herself from Abigail’s burning limbs. “Abigail, you’re too hot!”

“Thanks?” Abigail replied, a blush stronger than John had ever seen on her cheeks, then she realized what Jenny meant. John felt her cool down in his arms before she turned back to him. “Not too much for you?”