Reunion

Well. It was safe to say the girls had been busy.

Either that or they discovered the chat system that his HUD had and decided to just spam it because they were bored. But he had his doubts that boredom would cause them to send over 500 messages over the past month.

See, in the week before his arrest, he had formed a new party with just Mavis, Talia, and himself and called it “The Level Up Gang”. They had spent a day messing around with it and learning how much of his powers transferred over to them, and they learned that they could track each other’s locations as well as revisit previously visited illusion barriers. But if one party member was in an illusion barrier, and the others were not, the location tracker would just say that they were “in a barrier”, usually followed by which barrier they were in. However, in reading the chat messages that Talia and Mavis sent (especially the panicked ones from right around his capture), it seemed that the magic sappers that the Order had on the prison caused the location tracker to mess up and display his location as “unknown”.

Considering that this magic was blessed to him by not only a goddess, but THE goddess, he wondered for a moment how this was possible. However, he recalled how his runic magic was tied to his own strength, as well as the strength of Mavis being equal to his own. So perhaps that was how his own main Gamer powers worked. The stronger he got, the stronger they would get.

‘No. Also, hi. Thanks for talking to me again. I highly doubt that your messages would have gotten stopped by the sappers, so I guess you didn’t want to talk to me for a month?’ John thought as he read through Gaia’s message.

‘Oh how wonderful. I got tortured and beaten the shit out of in prison, but at least now you are sure about your choice! Glad to know-’

‘... Wait, you’re not omnipotent?’

Huh. John leaned back in his seat and thought about it. Perhaps this was why Gaia gave him powers in the first place, to make things more interesting. Or perhaps she heard the thoughts of someone and knew that he would be needed to change things up.

Or maybe there was more to her powers than she was telling.

Either way, such thoughts would be put to better use at a different time. He had more important things to focus on, like the fact that he was about to see his family again. And that he was somehow going to have to convince them to aid the people that threw him in prison in the first place.

John turned towards Moira, who was currently scrolling through her phone. “So, out of curiosity… how much do you know about my home life?”

Moira looked up, sliding her phone into her pocket. “Well, I know you have your mom who we’ve kept a careful eye on, as we do with all family members of those we imprison-”

“Why?” John asked with a hint of anger in his voice.

Moira quickly held her hands up. “Not for bad reasons. We just want to make sure that if your other family members are Abyssal that they don’t continue the crimes that had you imprisoned. Or in the event that they are not Abyssal, that they don’t stumble into the Abyss.”

John looked over to the messages that Mavis and Talia sent, making it rather clear they had no idea where John went and were trying every place they knew of looking for him. “And you don’t tell the family if someone has been arrested.”

Moira gave a sheepish look. “Well… if the family members are Abyssal, we scope them out, get a feeling for their behavior and whether they are on the right side of the law, and if they are good, we tell. But if we aren’t sure about them, or if the family isn’t Abyssal, we want to keep them out of our business so… no.”

“So my family has no idea where I’ve been for a month.”

“Again, I’m so sorry, John.” Moira reached over and took one of his hands into her own. “It’s just how the Order handles things. We won’t burden mundanes with the knowledge of the Abyss. It is our job to live in the dark-”

“So the mundanes won’t have to. Yeah, I know. The guards loved to recite their mantra as the reason why they were allowed to **** us.” John gave a small sigh, squeezing Moira’s hand. “Look, you and I both know that has to change, right? I mean, even for some of the horrible things that those people did, they are still human.”

“Not always,” Moira said, leaning back into her seat. “Some people we capture have consorted with demons and the like and made pacts that turn them into demon-human hybrids. You’d be surprised what people will do for more power. And how far they are willing to go for that power.” Moira looked out through the window, though her gaze seemed to be a million miles away. “I’ve had to do some… some harsh things in the name of the Lady. I’ve killed a lot of people, and I’ve never… I mean, I do what I have to do, John. Even if some of those things… hurt to do.”

John cocked his head as he stared at Moira. He thought back to what he had learned about the Order while in prison, about their ways and their beliefs and their culture. One of the things was that the Warden (not the prison warden, but rather what Moira was) was essentially the ultimate holy warrior of the Order. Said power and position was hereditary, as the first child of the previous Warden would always be a girl and always have the position of Warden when they got old enough.

Essentially, Moira was the Order’s child soldier. No, not just a soldier. Moira was the Order’s child general. Someone who was born into the world of fighting and combat, and no matter what, would be expected to one day lead the forces of her Order.

Moira was expected from a young age to be a person who would willingly kill in her goddess’ name. That couldn’t be easy for her.

“I… I understand. You do what you have to…” John looked at his own hands, remembering the screams of Brett Danielson, the first man he killed. “You have to do what you have to do. Even if those things aren’t… great.”

Both John and Moira remained in silence, both recalling things that they would prefer not to remember. Finally, John spoke up, “The… the reason I asked was because I have two Abyssal allies… well, I wouldn’t say allies as much as… girlfriends.”

Moira gave him a confused look. “You have… two girlfriends?”

“Y-yeah. Well, one is a girlfriend and the other is… but is also bound to my soul?”

“You didn’t mention these girls,” Moira said, crossing her arms.

“Well, I kinda wanted to keep them off the Order’s radar. Plus, I didn’t think you would react the best to me being… poly.”

Moira sighed, rubbing her temples in a bit of frustration. “Yeah. The Order is not a fan of such lifestyles. You just became a really hard sell to my father.” She gave a small sigh. “Explain the soulbound one.”

John went on to explain how he found Mavis, how she became bound to his soul, and all the implications of such. As he spoke, Moira went from confused to surprised to an expression of deep thought.

“So… you have a legendary sword that is also a girlfriend… one that has been in the hands of some of the greatest leaders of all time, at least if Mavis is to be believed.” She quickly pulled out her phone and typed something up. “I’m going to go talk to my father about this, and do some research about what the Order knows about the ‘Sword of Souls.’ If they have a good opinion of it, that might be all I need to sell you as aid to my father. After all, who would dare argue with a weapon of a god?” She gave John a smile before squeezing his hand. “Thank you for telling me, John.”

John returned the smile, giving her hand a squeeze back. “Thank you for being one of the good guys.”

Moira smiled at him as the car came to a stop, the door being opened by one of the knights who had been driving the car. John looked over and noticed that, instead of being at the Order mansion, they were at his place.

“I figured you would want some time to reconnect with your mom, and girlfriends now that I know about them.” Moira gestured for John to hop out. “Go on. I’ll be back in a couple hours to pick you up and take you to the mansion.”

John smiled at Moira, saying a quick thanks before nearly leaping out of the car.

After all this time, all these tribulations…

John was home.

---

“Talia? Is that you? I didn’t realize you’d be back so soon,” John’s mother called out from the kitchen as John slowly walked into his home. Nothing really looked that different from when John was last here, other than things being ridiculously clean. Of course, John knew why that was. His mother tended to clean the house up whenever she was nervous or overly stressed, with the only caveat being that she’d leave his bedroom alone. As long as he kept it decently clean, she would respect his privacy and space and not meddle too much with the state of his room.

Plus, now that he and his two girlfriends shared said bedroom, he really didn’t want his mom walking in on any… adult activities. Or, at least that's how things were before he got thrown in prison.

“Talia?” his mom called out; however, this time her voice carried an air of worry. Slowly John walked forward, taking a few deep breaths as he did so. He could smell whatever his mom was baking in the oven, along with the faint hint of lemon that came with the carpet cleaner his mom used to clean the household. He could feel weeks worth of tension and stress slowly leave his body, and could feel the slight heat of tears forming in his eyes.

‘I… I’m home. I didn’t… I mean I thought I would never….’

Just as he was about to round the corner to the kitchen, his mom stepped out through the doorway, wearing a look of worry while wielding a frying pan like a battle axe. John stopped dead in his tracks, as did his mom, who lowered her weaponized cookware as a look of astonishment came across her face.

“J-John?”

John smiled, spreading his arms wide for a hug. “Hi Mom. I’m home.”

His mom dropped the pan with a loud clatter, dashing forward and nearly tackling John in a hug. He could feel his mom’s tears dampening his shirt, but didn’t mind as his own tears were doing the same to hers. He just hugged his mom tightly, softly crying into the shoulder of the woman he thought he would never get to say goodbye to.

“Brenda! I just got a weird feeling! I think John has returned to-” John looked up to see Mavis descending the stairs, clad in one of his Iron Maiden t-shirts with one arm already in blade form. The second that she saw him, she took on the same look on her face that his mom had. With inhuman speed she, too, dashed forward, grabbing both Brenda and John in a hug to join in their joyus crying puddle.

After a few moments, Mavis pulled herself away before giving John a quick slap on the back of the head

-2 hp!

“You asshole! Where the hell did you go? Where in the nine worlds have you been for the past month?!” she yelled.

“Mavis, language,” Brenda said calmly.

“Sorry, Brenda. But seriously, John, what happened?”

John gave a soft sigh, pulling himself from his mom’s embrace before looking up at Mavis. “Turns out Lifthrasir was a criminal running several crime guilds here in Midgard. The day that I went to the guild happened to be the same day that the Order had planned a raid on the guild. I got caught up with the other guild members.”

Brenda gave John a puzzled look. “But why didn’t you tell them that you weren’t with the guild?”

John shook his head. “I tried, at least for the first few days-”

“Wait, John. You mean to tell me you spent the last month in an ORDER prison? As in the Order of the Golden Rose order?” Mavis said with a look of shock.

John gave a nod, which caused Mavis to shake her head in disbelief. “And you’re still alive and not brain dead?!”

“Wait, who is this “Order”?” Brenda asked. “I remember that Talia went to go ask them about John a week or two ago, but you guys didn’t tell me much beyond calling them ‘pseudo Abyssal cops’.”

“Well, I mean we weren’t wro-”

“Mavis, you promised you wouldn’t sugar coat things for me.” Brenda crossed her arms, giving Mavis a glare that John knew all too well from the times he tried to lie to his mom. “Try again.”

Mavis sighed, leaning back against a wall before beginning to speak. “So we weren’t wrong about the Order trying to be the cops of the Abyss. They have these ideas of which magics are pure and which are corrupted, and seek to make sure that the world of the mundane doesn’t mix with the world of the Abyss. The problem is that they tend to get very… inquisition-y with the people they deem as ‘corrupted’. Order correctional facilities are little more than medivial **** camps with a bit of magic spit and polish on them.”

John suddenly felt his mom’s arms wrap around him once again, hearing her mutter under her breath, “I swear if I had any powers like the two of you the things I would do to those fuckers who hurt you…”

John gave a slight chuckle, hugging his mom back as best he could before saying, “Don’t worry, Mom. My powers made any damage they did to me not permanent, and I was the most annoying prisoner I could be whenever they asked for my compliance. They made my month a living hell, but I didn’t make it easy for them.”

“Good,” Brenda said, before slowly pulling away from John. “Now the big question from both of us is how did you get out? And are we going to have to hide you from the Order from now on, because God Almighty, they are not going to take my son away from me again.”

John shook his head. “No. Actually, the Order were the ones who let me out. Turns out that they’ve been hunting down Lifthrasir for the past month, but haven’t been able to make any headway. They think he fled to Alfheim, but due to some past beef with the council, they aren’t actually allowed to go to Alfheim. So they learned about my ability to go there with my runic magic and offered me my freedom in exchange for helping them on their man-hunt.”

“And you agreed?!” Mavis shouted. “John, they imprisoned you for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time for a month!”

“Well, technically, it was also because I fought their holy Warden as well-”

“Doesn’t matter! You really expect them to not throw you back in jail for any number of ‘unholy’ things you might do! Hell, I’m pretty sure they are big proponents of the whole ‘one man and one woman’ style of relationships, and might see our polyamory with Thalia as sinful enough to throw all three of us in prison!”

“Well, what the hell do you think I should have done, Mavis?!” John shouted back at her. “They had me in that fucking prison for a month, and used me like a godforsaken guinea pig every fucking day! I was given a way out and a chance to get some **** on Lif, and I fucking took it! What, were you and Talia going to let me rot for another month or two before figuring out where I was?”

“We’ve been looking non-stop for you, John!” she yelled. “There hasn’t been a day that we’ve had a good night’s sleep because of how worried we were about you!”

“Then why are you complaining?! I found a way out, I got back, everything is okay now!”

“NO! You’ve indebted yourself to the Order! I won’t have you end up like Joan!”

“ALRIGHT, YOU TWO, THAT’S ENOUGH!” Brenda yelled, stunning both John and Mavis mid-argument. She quickly turned towards Mavis, pointing at the ancient personification with enough anger to make even her flinch. “Mavis, John did what he had to do to get out of there. Even if it was a poor choice, it was the only one he could have gotten and still be freed back to us. We should be thankful he was offered such a choice in the first place.”

Then, without missing a single beat, she turned to look at her son and gave him the same look. “John, you must understand that I, Talia, and Mavis have been worried sick about you for the past month and have done anything and everything we could think of to try and find you. It has been very stressful and it is clear that Mavis has a bad history with the Order, so please cut her some slack. Understood, you two?”

“Yes, Mom,” the two of them said simultaneously.

“Good.” She slowly stood up before giving John a kiss on the forehead. “Now, I’ve got dinner cooking in the oven, and thankfully, if I peel an extra couple of potatoes, there should be enough for all four of us. You two go talk and wait for Talia to come back, then feel free to… make up for the past month till dinner if you want.” She gave Mavis a small wink before walking back into the kitchen, whistling a happy tune.

John turned towards his weaponized girlfriend. “Did… Did I miss something?”

“You were gone for a month, John. Yes, you have obviously missed a bit of development between Brenda and Talia and I.” Mavis gave a small smile before giving him a light punch on the shoulder. “That’s for staying in prison.”

John smiled, his gaze flickering towards the stairs that led to his room. “And for coming back? What do I get?”

Mavis grinned. “Well, when Talia gets back…” She carefully placed her hand right on John’s bulge and squeezed.

“I think we should make up for some lost time.”

---

Fire

Smoke

Screams

So many screams

“My lady! This way isn’t safe! You need to find a AAAUUUUGGGHHHH!”

Blood

So much blood

Spilling out in crimson waves, only staying away from her because of her holy presence

“IN THE NAME OF THE LADY!”

Cracking

Screaming

Squishing

Pain

So much pain

So many dead

Dead guild members, piled high

Her fellow knights, tossing more corpses onto the burning pile

John Newman’s broken and experimented on body being tossed onto the pile as wel-

Moira woke up with a shock, her breath coming out in ragged gasps as she sat up. She had gone to the library in the Brighton Mansion to read up on the Sword of Souls, but had accidentally fallen asleep due to a long night of studying.

‘Well, that and the nightmares,’ she thought to herself as she tried to smooth out her now frazzled red hair.

In truth, she hadn’t been sleeping well as of late. Ever since the battle of the Scarlet Guild, she had been having nightmares about everything she did wrong in that cursed guild. From all the people she had to kill (something that she was still not used to yet, and something that still made her get sick to her stomach) to all of the knights that she had lost in the attack… Well, she had to thank the Lady that Kim was still a close friend and was able to help her out of any panic attacks while she was at school. She knew none of the other students would understand, nor would any of the knights in the Order.

‘John would understand though,’ she thought to herself. She was so glad that it turned out that John was as innocent as she initially hoped, as it was nice to have a friend who she could talk to about the Abyss that was close to her age. Most of the knights that were here were at least ten years older than her, and they never seemed to understand the issues she faced. To talk to her fellow knights about not wanting to kill people, or being sick to her stomach at the thought of the corpses she had left in her wake… none of them would understand.

‘Not even Dad.’ Moira sighed. She had been debating talking to her dad about her nightmares ever since they started almost four years ago with her first ever raid on a criminal organization. The criminals in question had been hosting some sort of **** distribution center in the basement of an old art studio, and Moira had been sent to clear them out in the name of the Lady.

She wanted them to give up and come quietly. She wanted to be able to teach them the error of their ways and have them come to the light.

She wanted to walk out of that art studio without any blood or brain matter on her armor and weapon.

She did not get what she wanted.

She was sick for nearly a week after that raid. To this day, any time she walks by that studio, she would start to get sick to her stomach. The nightmares after that were… bad, but her dad figured it was because of the crimes itself and the state of the hideout. No, she didn’t get any nightmares from that until a year down the line when she helped to break up a sex trafficking ring. Already she was expecting to see some depraved things in there, as they knew that the ring had been trafficking minors as well as adults. But when she got there and found one of her schoolmates **** out and a million miles away mentally…

Moira really hoped that therapy was going well for Susie. She deserved better.

But she knew she couldn’t talk to her father about this. Her father had been doing this kind of killing and cleansing in the name of the Lady for decades now. Hell, if anything, the fact that she was getting so sick at the idea of killing people or dealing with this level of corruption was just a weakness that she could not afford. A Warden of the Golden Rose would never get sick at the idea of killing corrupted mages. A Warden of the Golden Rose would never cry over the bodies left behind after a raid, even if some of those bodies were of innocents as well as criminals. A Warden of the Golden Rose would never cry because a child she went to comfort flinched away at the mere offer of a hug and now that child would always have the idea of affection corrupted for her. A Warden of the Golden Rose would never be disheartened at the fact that she saw herself in that child from the times that her father would come home to comfort her but she too would be terrified of the bloodstained man who was standing in her doorway.

She took a deep breath and tried to push those thoughts down. Now was not the time to get choked up about her own failures. She had to convince her father to allow John to help. She could do this. She was the Warden of the Golden Rose. She would be stronger than those thoughts. She could do this.

She had to do this.