Collide Gamer

“Alright, so let me summarize.” John looked at the screen in front of him. Not for the last time, he was thankful for modern technology making everything so tidy. What would have been a lengthy effort on and waste of paper could just be done by opening up a tier list creator.

“First, we have the William Calming Group,” John said. “Which… I have to ask again, are you absolutely sure I should not tag along?”

“Do you think you would add anything besides trouble, darling?” The last word left Moira sharply. Now that she had resolved most of the confusion and sexual tension between them, she struck him in a more demanding tone than before. Which John considered fully her right. He, too, was more demanding of the people he loved than of strangers or friends. It was the natural order of things. “Because,” she continued, “I think you will rile him up, when I already plan to give him complicated news.”

“Probably… still feels like I should be there.” John shot her one more searching glance. She budged as much as a mountain did against a glance. Since the woman had made the choice, her man surrendered himself to her whims on the matter. “As you prefer then. Second group will be accompanying my Ambassador Double on the San Jose operation. That will be Fianna, Lyndell, Claire, Nightingale, Nahoa and Ehtra.”

The women nodded as they were called upon, with the exception of Lyndell who was too busy partaking in her third coffee of the morning. Caffeine luckily did not do much for her, otherwise he would have worried about her blood pressure.

This selection of companions was simple to justify. Fianna would do her usual job, scouting ahead of the main group, assuring that they did not wander into any traps, and so on. Though they did not have to fear assassination attempts to the same degree as mundane people, they were not entirely immune. It was healthy to approach a city apparently controlled by a new Latebloomer with a large dose of caution, otherwise one of them might die.

To that end, the rest of their group was split between talkers and fighters. Claire and Nightingale could hold a negotiation on their own, while Nahoa and Ehtra provided the necessary tools to deal with many or singular enemies. Claire also brought her intel network while Ehtra would assure they knew when they were dealing with liars.

“The third group will accompany my Creator Puppet on the search of the source of the Kingdom gates,” the Gamer went on. “That will be Lee, Metra, Nia and Nathalia.”

Lee was a necessity for this mission. Without her, they wouldn’t be able to move across the country as quickly as they would need to and she was also the expert they had on questions of portals. Metra was coming along because of her ability to interact with dimensional magic, courtesy of the basis of their contract. All the way back when she had aided him in combat against Gehnigm, she had been given this form with the ability to break such supernatural constructs.

He didn’t necessarily need her to break them, but she was best added here just in case.

Nia, similarly, was tagging along because of her unique gifts. Perhaps she would be able to see or sense something in the flow of magic.

Nathalia was coming along as muscle. There was no pretension about it. She was strong and this group was rather small, so they had taken their heaviest hitter along just in case.

“Then, on the homefront we have… well, everyone else except for Lulu and Lydia.”

The two monarchs were returning to their countries. Well, in Lu Zhi’s case, she was going to be on the move. Her diplomatic game for the coming months was to delay Vinh’s rebellion for as long as possible while consolidating her own power.

As for those staying on the homefront, they were separated into a few sub-categories. Eliana remained home because she was now fully in baby preparation mode and insisted on that being more important than anything else, which was not just fair but correct. Scarlett was most effective as a coordinator from home. Rave and Aclysia were going to be busy arranging the wedding, a task that the first maid had insisted she’d be a part of. The elementals would stay with his main body to protect the Guild Hall. Momo and Beatrice were responsible for running much of the state. Delicia and Hailey would join Scarlett in their usual crafting and research operations.

In short: everyone would be busy.

John put the phone into his inventory. It was the last bit of electronics that needed moving. Everything that needed extraction, Lee had already moved to her own pocket dimension to drop off wherever she left materials and devices she used for these Intermediary Barriers. Leftover food had been sorted through by the maids. Personal items were stowed away. Anything that remained had been manifested from nothing by Lee and would go back to nothing once they had left.

A departure that they had no reason to postpone any further.

“Well, that was an eventful 18 days.” John rose up and the haremettes did so in kind. “Thank you all once more for putting up with my hijinks – especially you.” He smirked at Daiyu. The black-haired, black-eyed and black-dressed woman kept to the doorframe. “It must be exhausting to be a handmaiden under these conditions.” Follow current novels on novel{f}ire.net

“I… d-don’t mind…” Daiyu stammered and hid a little more behind the doorframe. “It’s been… uhm… taxing in a good way?”

John snorted in amusement, then let out another sigh. He wanted to stall, to delay the breaking up of his harem for as long as possible. While he was going to stay with most of them through his extra bodies, there was no replacement for the full harem life. Half the fun was watching all of them interact with each other.

Still, he had no choice. He led the way towards the exit. All too soon, they were out of the Intermediary Barrier and back in the Guild Hall. Then they simply… separated.

It always struck John how mundane such events were in the moment. In his memory and in his anticipation, the goodbye kisses and shrinking silhouettes in the distance would be and were that much more illustrious. In reality, seconds passed and ordinary steps were taken.

He sighed wistfully, already missing the multitude of voices no longer there to warmly call him an idiot. ‘Woe is me, I am left with only 13 of them,’ he thought. The same thought played out with different numbers in the partitions of his mind. This one, his real body, led his present harem back to the Palace.

They were immediately scattering out from there. It was 2 in the morning, but they already had work to do. Scarlett needed to help Lee with locating the quickest way to their target. The San Jose operation was also in need of some coordination, though that one could wait. They had to get there first.

Rave and Aclysia were going to send out the first emails, the elementals were checking on the ongoings in the Guild Hall, Eliana was marking parts of the Palace for use for their nursery, Beatrice went straight to the government buildings, and that left John, Hailey and Delicia with the task of hauling Momo’s gift into her library.

“Can’t you use your Fae Maids for this?” Delicia asked.

“They have very weak arms,” the sassy maid returned. “Just barely stronger than you.”

“I got 5 more points in Strength than you, puny fae thing.”

“Oohhhh, 5 whole points, so impressive!”

“More impressive than your tits.”

“Wha- flat is justice, you saggy hag!”

“How dare! Nothing about me is sagging!”

“Not disagreeing with the hag, ey?”

“Psh, why would I? I’d love having a cauldron and a big hat.”

“That does sound pretty nice actually. Cabin in the woods, making exotic teas…”

“Teas, yeah, sure.” Delicia snickered.

John and Hailey exchanged a glance, then rolled their eyes playfully. The enchanted insides of the Palace made their journey a short one. The double-sided doors of Momo’s library opened up and they stepped inside.

The space was more fantastical every time John visited it. The vertical chamber was filled to the brim with bookshelves. They lined the walls and hovered in midair as quadratic constructs of wood and stone. Periodically, segments of the walls would switch with these flying shelves. The calculation was done per segment, keeping everything constantly in motion. In side chambers, the same process was playing out on a smaller scale.

“Over there will do,” Momo said, guiding them to an empty spot between rows of unused tables and chairs. Currently unused, it ought to be said. Though polished and clean, the tabletops and chairs had clear signs of use. Dents, scratches, and the kind of food stains that refused to be washed out. Only food stains, John could attest. When they did have sex in this complex, Momo made sure no signs of that remained whatsoever.

The box hit the floor with a loud thud. John stretched, the weight of the capstone shard no longer weighing on his shoulder. “Going to call your colleagues?” he asked.

“Not quite yet, no,” the ‘hobby’ archaeologist responded. “I want to tickle its secrets out myself… I have a couple of hunches, and if any of them are correct, then I don’t want what I know to make it through to Remus or the Horned Rat.”

“That would be a complicating factor,” John agreed. Most of the people in Momo’s network of associates came from the Illuminati or Prometheus. A shared interest only went so far when loyalties were concerned. Everyone participating knew that.

“Can ya remind me why your libr’ry do that?” Hailey drawled, pointing at the moving segments far above them.

“Do you want the honest answer, the mechanical answer or the aesthetic answer?” Momo asked.

Hailey adjusted her trucker hat. “Why ya askin’ me when ya know I wanna know everythin’, sugar?”

“Fair play. The mechanical answer is that I set it to sort itself according to 5 different systems, so it’s constantly re-calculating where everything goes.” Momo’s white eyes followed the lumbering float of one of the cubes. “The aesthetic answer is that it looks really impressive.”

“And the honest answer?”

“It keeps my stuff safe. I like my stuff.” Momo pointed at the bottom of the segment she had been tracking. “There’s markings on each of the segments that tell me what’s inside the cube. That one has the piece of wood that we stole from Mengele. There’s books on the shelves I don’t want people to grab without my permission either. By constantly shuffling everything, I make sure any would-be thief has a horrible time.”

“A healthy degree of paranoia,” John remarked, then sighed again. “Now… as much as I would love hanging about… I need to officially take power back from the Viceroys.”

“Urgh, right…” Momo stopped taking in the scenery, then shot the sealed box a yearning glance. “I will open you later,” she promised.

“You sound more loving towards that stone than you do towards me.”

“That stone doesn’t owe me several hours of facesitting time.”

“Touche,” John relented.

“Y’all have fun, Del and I are gonna work on our thayngs,” Hailey remarked.

That accent was a magnetic draw that had John put his lips to hers. One long smooch later, he did the same for Delicia. Then, their quartet turned into two duos. John walked down the corridor, only a single woman by his side.

“God, I am in the position every man dreams of and I still feel naked,” he lamented.

“Sucks to be you,” Momo sassed him and gave his nose a playful tap. Her other arm was wrapped around his waist, mirroring the way his was across hers. The important difference laid in him squeezing her luscious backside. “Getting back into the swing of things after almost three weeks is weird though.”

“Yeah… you don’t have to tag along, you know? You can spend your morning geeking out.”

“Mhm, yeah, I could… but I’m stupid and I love you, so I’m not going to make you suffer a shock withdrawal.” Smugly, she smirked up at him. “If there wasn’t a woman next to you, you might literally die.”

“Don’t you mean figuratively?”

“Mhhhmm… mhmmmm…” Her little playful hums were indescribably adorable. “…No. I imagine your balls would crawl up your spine and choke your brainstem.”

John laughed, the deep sound of his voice bouncing off the long corridor. “That’s quite vivid.”

They descended a flight of stairs and then, magically, found themselves in the complex of rooms used for whiskey drinking and secretive political conversations. This meeting was going to contain neither. It was still the best place for it.

John opened the door with the Companion Cube. The silvery construct pushed down on the handle, then pushed. The chatting of the three men inside came to a halt.

“My Emperor,” the Splatterknight said, taking a knee upon his entrance. The other two did not follow the gesture nor would John have asked them to. He still wasn’t sure just how much he wanted to lean into demonstrations of power. What he was sure of was that he did not mind those that enacted those gestures out of respect.

“Rise,” John said with a casual smile. As the giant of a man returned back to his specially tailored chair, the sovereign of Fusion addressed the three of them, “I’ve read the reports Magnus compiled. The Kingdom gates and San Jose already have the attention of my other bodies,” he confirmed to them the plans he had already written of the days prior. “Anything else you would like to report?”

“Only that I’m sorry I couldn’t penetrate into that city.” Hyozuma scratched the back of his head and let out a long sigh. “They’re strong and have incredible communications.”

“So I have read.” John was now seated. Momo, evidently feeling affectionate, chose his lap as her seat. There was a hint of smugness on her face throughout it all, an openly worn enjoyment that she was using her Master as her chair pillow. John, in return, got her fat ass on his thigh and her legs as his squeeze toy. “I’m going to take care of it.”

‘How does it feel being the big bad boss in a fantasy story?’ Momo asked him mentally.

‘Interesting,’ he responded sincerely. ‘One day you have the poor position in negotiations with some anti-communist blood cult, the next you’re the kind of person that sits on a throne in the shadows for the first three seasons of a long-running action-adventure.’

Momo kept her cute snort in his mind. ‘Except, of course, you’ll actually do more things than sit on a throne.’

“Then let’s change to another topic. Did the regency council work well?” John reclined in his chair. “I am admittedly worried that your authority wasn’t respected.”

“There was some clear pushback,” Magnus said. “The expected factions.”

“Emrik and the new Abyssals?”

“Awakened,” Hyozuma corrected. “That’s the term that’s consolidated in recent days. It’s been used in official documents overwhelmingly.”

John pondered that for a moment. What was naturally emerging could still be changed by an official decree. Though, he struggled to find a reason to do so. “The Awakened of the Great Re-Alignment of the Abyss,” he tasted the phrase. “I suppose that is a fitting line for the history books… anyhow, I assume they have been giving you the most trouble?”

“Emrik overwhelmingly,” the Splatterknight said, audibly displeased.

“Be lenient with him, it is his purpose to keep the previous, republican institutions as influential as they can be,” John responded. “When the chips are down, he has always done the right thing.”

“Anyone in my cabinet that was uncooperative?” Momo asked, to which she received exchanged glances, then shaken heads. “Wonderful. Took me long enough to get a crew together that solves more issues than it creates.”

“And the original Abyssals have been cooperative?” John asked. “No rebellious attitudes?”

“None whatsoever,” Hyozuma said flippantly. “You’re absurdly popular and then there’s this guy.” The magical thief pointed at Magnus. “Basically, a rockstar.”

“My father’s reputation aiding me even after he passed.” The Fateweaver spoke neutrally, the shadow of his loss present but not overpowering. “Though it needs to be said that little needed to be done. As you thought, the Christmas days were fairly inactive.”

“Not a proper test for the robustness of the respect people may or may not have for noble authority,” Hyozuma agreed and pointed, with his thumb, at the Splatterknight. “Joshua here was the most active.”

“It was my duty… and I didn’t have a date for the holidays.”

“You’d think someone with your chin would be rolling in women.”

“I would prefer a singular partner,” the giant responded.

Hyozuma looked borderline offended by the notion. “Whack, but go on?”

“And there are difficulties with being this huge.”

“Yeaaaaah…” Momo stared at the biceps of the man. It was almost the width of the maid’s entire torso. “As the woman in the room, I think you being this big is visually attractive, but then I think about that gif of a huge train hitting a tiny tunnel…”

The Splatterknight snorted in amusement. “Indeed.”

“Couldn’t you biomancy yourself smaller?” John wondered.

“I am no free shapeshifter. The transformation would take a while each time and leave me weakened.” The Splatterknight shook his head. “I am in no hurry. I will live for hundreds of years.”

Magnus interrupted their dating conversation by placing his piece of the Fusion crown on the table. “If that is all in the official capacity, I would be on my way.”

“Of course,” John said and pulled the sixth of the regalia towards him. “There’ll be some meetings regarding the process of landing in the coming days. If everything goes well, over time, the authority of the houses will come from the reputation of the houses and nothing else.”

“I hope for that future,” Magnus agreed.