The Rapid Return

John sat on the shore.

Killing the primordial Lorylim had not changed anything about Izha’s suppression. The Gamer was entirely certain that the nihilist had hidden away a second blotch of mass somewhere on the island that he was using as his relay. Finding it had been the challenge of the past day. They had not resolved it yet.

‘Wonder if I was goaded into fighting that precursor one…’ John thought to himself. Perhaps he had acted hastily. He was not immune to stress entirely, even if he was much better at remaining calm-headed than most people. ‘Considering that I still believe Izha would have loosed it on me when we were about to get rescued… definitely wasn’t a waste to pull the pin from that grenade.’

For his part, he was just sitting there, staring out into the ocean. The survivors were back on the surface, still playing around with their newfound powers. Many of them were laughing about the rapid, positive changes to their bodies or the experimentations they did with their new powers. They were blissfully unaware of the greater horror their awakening was part of.

“I… am quite admiring of your tenacity.”

The **** in the compliment came from a mild case of anxiety. John found that amusing, turning his head to give the speaker a look with a raised eyebrow.

After the dust had settled, Lucifrena had been finalized in the shape of a bottom-heavy black woman. The skin tone was dark enough to come from the southern reaches of Africa, but the shape of her features and the colour of her hair did not match that. In the former, she had more of a mix going on, various features blended together to create something John cautiously would call Middle Eastern, although he would have had to brush up on his ethnicity knowledge to make that call for certain. Regardless of that, platinum blonde hair was certainly not among the regular hair colours for her origin, nor was the brightness of her lime green eyes something he would regard as a natural pigmentation.

The reincarnated woman wore a tank top and skinny jeans that clad her perfect ass tightly. That it was a perfect, Rave-tier bubble butt was something John tried to ignore to the best of his ability. He instead kept his eyes on her face. That was gorgeous as well, with the full lips and the chin-length hair, gold next to deep brown, but at least it did not make him immediately horny. She was only slightly taller than Rave, so the feline Lightbearer’s extra clothes, kept in the inventory, had fit her well enough.

“It’s not as admirable these days, considering how many Stat Points I got to pump into it,” he answered drily. It had been meant to be a joke. It came out self-deprecating.

“However you have grown, your growth is yours?” Lucifrena’s response came out as uncertain. She cautiously clutched the damaged cross around her neck. She had kept it and evidently valued it quite highly. Something that John had observed before.

It couldn’t have been just a symbol of Gaia that they kept encountering Lucifrena around churches. “Are you a Christian?”

The question came a bit out of left field for her, so he forgave her the pause. “I… do not know if I am worthy of the description… but if I am anything, then a disciple would be a better term?”

“You knew the man himself?” John asked, now a lot more interested. She nodded. “What was he like?”

“Unlike anyone I have met before or since. He was… I do not wish to make this sound insulting… but I believe he was your opposite? He never thought much about what he did. So deep was his virtue that he would always do what was best by simply acting.”

“That is indeed something I could only dream of.” John managed an assuring smile, then returned his gaze to the horizon. “I overthink everything.”

With communications still completely jammed, the only thing he could do was hope that the others, Lorelei first and foremost, managed to locate him. They would have arrived in the area around now. It was probably another couple of days until they found the correct place.

John was happy to be proven wrong.

The yacht came into view. Whatever non-barrier illusion lay over this place, it crossed it and then was suddenly there. The people on the shore started to shout. One of the pilots shot a hopeful glance his way and he gave a confirming nod. ‘I am getting wins and losses handed quite evenly at the moment,’ he thought, sending out the return call to the elementals in the same moment.

Trying to pull up the Harem Comms still did not work. John was waiting for Izha to spring another surprise on them. For all he knew, there was more of the primordial Lorylim buried beneath the island. Nothing like that happened, however. His gloominess was counteracted by the excitement of the others.

The yacht stopped about a hundred metres away from the shore. Its side opened, letting one of the smaller ships out of the drydock within the belly of the entirely oversized private vessel. “There are ships inside the ship?” one of the onlookers declared in flabbergasted wonder. “Magic, huh?”

“Actually, that’s just rich people absurdity,” John corrected him. “The ship’s materials are partly magical, but the naval engineering is fundamentally mundane. Bezos probably has something like it.”

The idle bit of chatter was nice to have. He did not know how much longer he would have that kind of luxury. The moment he got unstuck from this island, he was going to be in motion until he either dropped dead or the attack of the Lorylim was dealt with.

Izha’s influence only retreated when Claire jumped off the ship. The vampire maid raced across the water and through the sun at speed too rapid for any of the new Abyssals to track. Either she was aware they had all awakened already or she was just too eager to care.

Catching her was a little difficult, due to her speed and the simultaneous return of his many mental connections. Aclysia and Claire practically hooked into his thoughts, drinking in his presence like starving explorers. They scanned every bit of memory he offered to them, while making their own way over the beach. Aclysia followed Claire with measured steps. Every footfall froze the shallow water before as much as a droplet could touch the hem of her skirt.

The most confusing thing was reconnecting with the Creator Puppet though. Not because he suddenly had a second body again, that happened often enough, but because he was looking at the face of an unfamiliar woman.

Who immediately went cross-eyed with what clearly was a potent orgasm.

“What is happening?” he asked through the lips of the Creator Double. Past the first gaze, he recognized the ecstasy-distorted features of the cute brunette. It was the woman that he had met at Maximillian’s wedding. Given that singular context clue made figuring out the rest quite easy. “I assume this is Aclysia’s surprise then?”

“If I may, it is more… Claire’s surprise.” Lorelei’s voice hitched for a moment when she lifted the spasming woman over her shoulder. It was a bit odd to watch the seer carry someone with such ease. It was even weirder that the woman squirted so intensely some of the fluid dripped through her now soaked clothing. “I will explain further in a moment. For now, I must move her away from you.”

“Understood.”

“Where is Lee?” John asked with his real body’s lips. His hand brushed over Claire's hair, who was still holding onto him. There was so much to be said and no time to say it. “We have to get moving immediately.”

“Lee ran the Mobile Barrier for the past 36 hours. She said there was consistent pressure to invade it as well. She will need some time to recover,” Aclysia responded, voice heavy with emotion. Having crawled through his memories, she knew what was at stake now, but they were limited by the reality of their situation.

Everyone else arrived at the shore at that time. Rave went to hug Aclysia, then swiftly kissed Claire. The sight caused some confusion among the former mundanes, who had not yet realized what kind of lifestyle the Gamer lived.

“Then there is ****. We will do what we can.”

____________________________________________________________________________

What they could do was twofold. First was the obvious: loading all the people onto the yacht and making arrangements with mundane authorities. They had a whole story to spin for what had happened, how they had survived, and why a mega yacht had come around to pick them up. Since there were plenty of Abyssal tendrils in mundane offices, the most difficult part of this was to keep the newly awakened people in line.

John would have put greater care into that under other circumstances. His second action, however, took priority: calling Momo. The Harem Comms were still suppressed, but the phone started working again. Evidently, Izha found it easier to mess with communication magic than good, new technology.

“I already sent out the general report demand,” Momo told him, after getting the download on the situation. “Yes, I am double-checking everything; yes, I have Scarlett on it; yes, I am preparing for the worst. Now that I have your confirmation, I’ll up from partial to full mobilization orders.”

“God, thank you for being you,” John said with complete sincerity.

“Thank me after this is all over,” Momo responded without a hint of bashfulness. “I’m handling things here. Even if you teleport back right this second, you’re not going to accelerate any of the administrative burden. Go check on your parents first. Nia...” she paused for a moment, “…is already gone.”

John’s mouth suddenly felt dry. The reminder that his parents could be threatened by all of this was a dire one. To target mundane people so brazenly would be the end of the Lorylim, but Izha had already indicated that was a sacrifice he was willing to make. Would they kill his parents if they could?

Absolutely.

“I will,” he answered firmly.

“Good. Now I have some hecklers to shout down. Both of us have work to do. We’ll be in touch.” Momo waited for him to hang up, which he did a moment later.

The haremettes on the rescue mission shared the room with John. Lee lay on the bed, entirely knocked out. Undine was healing her, but even she could not mend total exhaustion that easily. That their way home was knocked out by the strain was bothersome, but she had already given a whole lot. To keep a Mobile Barrier running at that speed for so long while someone (Izha no doubt) was trying to invade it must have been incredibly exhausting for anyone who did not have access to John’s cheat codes.

The human part of the Lorylim hivemind was doing everything he could to hinder them and he did so with frightening competence. ‘Am I going to lose?’ The question occurred to John for the first time. He was prepared for losses, some more than others. Ever since Travolta had died, his mind had the tendency to imagine the worst cases. Ever since Thana had awoken in the arena, he had a habit of taking even absurd ideas into consideration. To believe he would get out of this without hurt was an idea he had dispensed with before the plane had met the ocean.

But could it be possible that Izha and Tiamat were prepared even for the coalition he had forged against them?

It was. He did not know exactly how. Still, it was.

“Alright, so catch me up,” Nathalia demanded. “This is the angel?”

“Do you… not remember me?” Lucifrena asked.

“Should I?” Nathalia asked, abrasively. It was a hint of her old character shining through the cracks created by the current stress.

“I suppose I did look different.” The blonde, dark-skinned woman scratched her arm. “You, uhm… no, now is not the time.”

“Now is indeed not the time,” Ehtra agreed. “You have already worked out our side of events. Lorelei made Aclysia present Layla and her Innate Ability allowed us to track you. It also is now keeping her knocked out on the other side of the ship.”

John just took that on the face of it and gave his explanation to Nathalia, “The short story is that we crashed, Izha somehow caused a mass awakening among the mundanes that crashed with us, then we fought a primordial Lorylim. Lucifrena here was instrumental in that.”

“No injuries then?” the goddess of volcanoes asked.

John pressed his lips together. It caused immediate alarm among the women in the room that had not been on the island with him. “What happened, John?” Aclysia requested, no, demanded to know.

This was a memory he had withheld until that point, but there was no way to draw it out any further. Wordlessly, he grabbed his shirt and pulled it up. A collective hiss of anger and concern went through the room as eyes met his revealed abdomen.

A grey network of mycelium spread over the right side of his stomach. For the most part, it was under the skin, the roots ranging from the width of a needle to a USB cable. At the centre of the network was a coin-sized protrusion. It looked disgusting, specifically because the fungal disk was buried into a human body.

“It is not malignant,” John told the shocked crowd.

“That looks very fucking malignant!” Metra shouted, already holding Rex Magnar. “I can cut it out.”

“We obviously fucking tried that already, that’s why we know its not malignant,” Salamander barked back. “It regenerates with Gamer’s Body.”

“It fucking what?!”

“It is true,” Lorelei muttered. “The first foe has grafted itself onto his magical circuits in harmony? A symbiosis with yet untapped purpose?”

“Any visions you receive on that?” Rave asked.

“As of this moment, I am consciously rejecting any scrying I may be able to do.” Lorelei folded her hands in her lap. “Izha reads my mind as I perceive them, giving me naught but a stream of endless images and him fractions of the future to react to.” She paused for a moment. “I do not know how much he can decipher, but it is prudent to assume he knows all that I should have known.”

‘I really could lose,’ John thought again, then pushed it aside. Shattered confidence would not get him anywhere. “The point is…” he pulled his shirt back down, “…that this is another matter that we cannot address right now.”

“Oh… oh fuck…” Lee stirred, then shot up. “John!”

“Lee. Can you move?” he got to the point straight away.

“Yes!” she answered before actually trying to stand up. She was wobbly, but she managed. “Back to the Guild Hall?”

“To DC,” John told her. “I need to check on my parents.”

“Alright…?” The confusion on her face was clear. He would explain to her on the way. “Are we all going?”

“The Creator Puppet stays to move the yacht back. Besides that, yes.”

Lee nodded intensely, then prepared for translation.