Part 1

"{Why?! Why don't you ever listen to me, young knight?!}"

"Ow-ow…! Come on, Cal! My head hurts enough as is, I don't need you to be shouting in it as well!"

"{Statement: Interface:Teeny is in full agreement with Interface:Caly's objection to the behavioral patterns of Archon Polemos.}"

"Oh, not you too…"

"{Yes! Listen to what she says, young knight, for it's the truth! Except that part about calling me 'Caly'! That's categorically false.}" Cal paused, and then the tone of their voice shifted to an annoyed hiss. "{Teeny? Could you please not joke around when our young knight's health is on the line?}"

"{Deflective Response: Interface:Teeny doesn't understand the request. Interface:Teeny is always serious.}"

Ignoring my bickering swords, as usual, I sat down on the edge of my bed and laid both of them on my lap, just so that I could massage my aching temples. As it turned out, while the long-range-ified transmitter enchantment of my Leoformer didn't put as much strain on me as going full gung-ho with the inter-pocket-dimensional tunnelling, it was still a bit too much for me to handle at the moment. My body was in a fragile equilibrium due to the stunt I pulled the other day, and so maintaining contact with Judy and co for just an hour was enough to give me a hell of a headache.

I would've liked to say I was used to these by now, but you can't really get used to this bollocks. I had to cut the connection, and the two chatty weapons have been working overtime trying to fix my insides. As such, I set up a rather languid version of the meditative circulation Naoren taught me, made myself as comfortable as I could, and closed my eyes again.

It hasn't been that long since I was forced to sever my connection with Judy's artifact, but since I was feeling a bit better now, I quickly Far Glanced in the gang's direction, and I found them more or less where I left them. Despite how late it was, the tavern was as lively as before, and if anything, there were somehow even more people surrounding the group.

They were seated around the biggest table in the establishment now, packed with snacks and refreshments. Josh sat at the head of the table (since he was the only guy in the team, they probably presumed that he was the leader by default), with Judy, Elly and Ammy on his left, and Angie, Snowy, and Penny on his right. The rest of the spots, and even the spaces between the chairs, were taken up by gossip-hungry Abyssal villagers.

"Oh! So you're from House Shamash!" One of the patrons I'd seen before, the elderly woman with the braided hair, exclaimed as she closely studied the small plaque in Josh's hand. "My! It's been a while since we had Shamash people falling out of the sky!"

"Is it really such a common occurrence?"

Judy's question must've sounded naïve to them, because the women looked at her with friendly yet amused smiles, while the men were outright chuckling at her expense.

"No, no, Notes Missy!" came the response from the overly friendly balding Abyssal from before, but he first emptied his mug full of a frothy brown drink before properly elaborating. He used his hairy forearm to wipe his mouth and gestured at my assistant with his free hand. "It's not exactly 'common', you see, but it's not quite 'uncommon' either! When this kind of thing happens, it means someone made a pig's ear of a situation, and big time!"

"What he's trying to say," the stocky barkeep cut in with a disapproving frown, "Is that this kind of event only happens when one of the Nobles, or someone in their retinue, miscalculates something badly and it causes one of their gateways to collapse prematurely." He put down the mug in his hand and pointed at the ceiling, then made a circular motion with his finger. "There's something about this place that draws in all the people who get ejected in the process. That's why this here village was built on the spot."

"I've… never heard about such a thing before…" Snowy spoke up, but her objection was dismissed with a shrug.

"I'm not surprised. The Shamash are not known to travel outside the Abyss a lot." The balding man at the table mused. "Must have something to do with the sun outside, or I don't know…" His words trailed off, and his eyes were suddenly locked onto Snowy. "Actually, on closer look… Are you, perchance, a blood relative of the Noble Head of House Shamash? I mean the resemblance is…"

"Excuse me, I have another question," Judy interrupted him, and I just noticed that she was holding a small yellow notepad. I haven't seen her use that in ages, or at least since she started taking notes on her phone, so it felt oddly nostalgic. "Are you saying that people from all Noble Houses of the Abyss show up here? Does that mean there are members of House Inanna here?"

Her question made Penny tense up, and the rest of the gang also looked a bit wary, but another of the women around the table, this time a middle-aged one with pale green hair, raised her voice to answer.

"Ah, don't worry, sweetie. We haven't seen anyone from there in years!"

"Maybe they don't travel much outside either?" the bald man mused, still looking at Snowy, but then he suddenly shook his head. "Ah, but what was I thinking. When those damn tunnels collapse, it's always the little guys who get ejected first. There's no way the Silver-haired Missy could be related to any of the Lords, right?"

There was resounding agreement around the table, and Snowy hurriedly nodded along. Meanwhile, Angie (or on second look, Deus), tapped on the table with her finger and said, "I don't like this. This place might be dangerous."

"Don't be so paranoid, Little Missy! Coepi Urbs is about as safe as you can get in the Abyss right now!"

"I'm not a 'Little Missy'!" Deus hissed at the bald man, taking him aback for a second, but then Josh hastily grabbed her hand and sent a 'Don't antagonise the locals!' kind of look her way.

She let out a soft huff, but didn't argue and only turned her head to face away from Josh, right until Angie asserted control again, and she enthusiastically squeezed the guy's hand back.

Meanwhile, the tavern-keep walked over to the table and, after twirling his moustache for a bit of dramatic flair, he emphatically told them, "Hardie isn't wrong about that, you know? You don't have to worry about House Inanna while you're here."

"But what about the civil war?" Ammy pointed out, and her question painted a good-natured grin onto the man's face.

"What do we care about such things? There are people hailing from all corners of the Abyss living here, so one's origins or past allegiances matter little. Not to mention, we're all standing on Ninhursag land!"

"… Meaning?" Ammy pressed on, causing the Abyssals in the tavern to look at her funny.

"Come on, Glasses Missy! Have you been away from the Abyss so long that you don't even know that House Ninhursag are maintaining neutrality in the war?"

"O-Of course we knew that!" Elly interjected from the side, trying to salvage the situation. "But does that really mean you don't care about the civil war at all? What if the Inannas and… um… Bel of the Abyss wins?"

"Oh, Blondie Missy worries too much," the extrovert guy said as he dismissed her concern with a wave of his hand.

The women around the table kept sending him pointed looks, but he didn't seem to care, so the elderly one from before cleared her throat and stated, "Whatever the future may hold is out of our control. It's decided by men and women in power who care not for us, and maybe for the better. Just understand that no matter what may come, right now, you're in a safe place."

"I couldn't have said it better myself!" The tavern keeper backed her up, followed by an overt glance at the stairs leading to the upper floor. "It's getting late. Let's let the kids rest, and we can continue this conversation tomorrow. What do you say?"

"Oh, fine, fine!" the balding Abyssal man grumbled, but then he was immediately full of sunshine and grinned at Josh. "Have a nice rest, and I'll give you a tour of the village first thing in the morning!"

"We…"

"We'll take you up on the offer, thank you," Judy interjected before Josh could formulate a proper answer, and she got up with the same momentum. Elly automatically followed after her, and seeing them move, the rest did so as well.

"Come along, I'll show you to your rooms for the night," the tavern-keep said with a chuckle, but then, when they reached the stairs, he suddenly turned around and raised a finger at them. "Just to be clear: everyone here in Coepi Urbs has friends and family who might've landed here the way you did, so it's common courtesy to offer a helping hand, but the rooms are only free for the first night. I'm running a business here, you know?"

"Yes, and we appreciate your generosity," Judy responded first once again, and the proprietor nodded with a hint of satisfaction.

"I wish all Noble Scions were as nice and courteous as you kids."

He followed that up with a chuckle and then led the group to the room.

The second floor had six guest rooms in total. All of them were empty, and after some back-and-forth, it was decided that the gang would take up three of them. One for my sisters, one for the childhood friend couple, and then the last one, with the queen-size bed, was to be shared by my girlfriends and Ammy, as the latter didn't want to sleep alone.

The interiors of said rooms were the same as the tavern downstairs; simple, rustic, yet still blatantly new. They had no carpets or decorations, just plain walls and wooden floorboards, with only the floral-print curtains over the dark windows and the spotless white bedding bringing a touch of homeliness to the place.

Everyone set their bags down, took off their jackets and boots, and then, as if rehearsed ahead of time, they all converged in my girlfriends' room, as it was the biggest of the three. As soon as everyone was present, Judy turned to the class rep.

"Amelia? Do you see any surveillance spells?"

"No, but even if I did, I couldn't do much about them…"

"Lili? Can you soundproof the room?" came the next request from Josh. "You know? Like you showed me way back when?"

"Hey! I can do that, too! Why aren't you asking me?" Angie volunteered, but by then Snowy was already busy setting down her Sigils around the four corners of the room. "Oh, fine! I'll close the curtains, at the very least."

While they were doing that, Elly casually picked up the small, artisanal wardrobe, both to give Snowy access to that corner and to allow the class rep to look around for hidden spells behind it. All in all, the whole thing took a few minutes, during which Penny made herself useful by activating her custom Concealment Sigil to snoop around downstairs.

By the time she returned, every inch of the room was fully inspected, and as soon as she closed the door behind herself, Snowy activated her spell with a delicate twirl of her fingers, coating the whole chamber with a thin layer of orange light from the inside.

At last, Judy set down a rechargeable electric storm-lamp onto the small square table, the only other furniture in the room besides the bed and the wardrobe, and turned the light to the maximum. The warm LED light mimicking the colour-temperature of a kerosene-fed flame filled the center, casting long shadows behind the seven clustered around it.

"No surveillance found," Ammy started, and a beat later she also added, "Grimmy also says there were no mana-fluctuations at all until Neige set down the privacy spell."

"Good." Josh decided to grab the reins of the conversation and turned to Penny. "Anything suspicious downstairs?"

"N-No," my knightly sister responded a bit awkwardly. "They act perfectly normal! There was nothing suspicious!"

"… Then why are you fidgeting like that?" the guy asked, and after some grumbling, she came clean.

"Because… I overheard that the friendly mister noticed that I was always sticking close to Snowy, and they wondered if I was her bodyguard, or something more…" She abruptly hid her face behind her hands. "Hauuu… I thought I was being super-inconspicuous and natural! How did they figure out we're sisters? Just what gave it away?"

The rest of the group shared a rather complicated look between each other, accentuated by Snowy's awkward smile, and they soon collectively decided to just ignore Penny's outburst and move on.

"In other words, they didn't do or say anything dubious. Noted." Judy, true to her words, wrote that down in her notepad, then turned to Elly. "Did you sense anything odd?"

"No, not really," my draconic girlfriend responded a touch ambivalently, and then she crossed her arms. "Everything smells kinda like Neige down here, which… makes sense, I suppose? It's the Abyss, after all. I could also catch a whiff of another familiar scent. I think there might be Fauns here, too."

"That makes sense," Josh mused with a thumb and forefinger on his chin. "They said the people here are descendants of people who fell out of the sky when those gates, right? Abyssals travel with Fauns, so it makes sense that they would fall out of there at the same time."

"But I've never heard about something like this," Snowy pointed out, only for my dear assistant to argue back.

"To be fair, weren't you repressed and isolated by Noir Irdu Inanna? It's possible that he kept it a secret from you."

"It's… possible," my Abyssal sister granted, and Elly immediately followed her up.

"Let's ask the Shamash Clan Head once she…" Her words trailed off and a troubled frown settled over her eyes. "Actually, do we have a way to contact her?"

"We'll figure that out as we go," Josh stated authoritatively, drawing all eyes to himself. "Before anything else, we have to figure out what to do about this situation. Do we stay here, or do we run away?"

"Yeah! This place is hella sus!" Angie declared, prompting Josh to blink and snap his attention to her.

"It's what?"

"Sus," Angie repeated, and seeing that he still didn't get it, she angrily threw her hands into the air. "Oh, come on! It's one thing that Deus didn't get it, but you're young! You should get the lingo!"

"You've been spending too much time on the internet," Josh grumbled and then faced the electric lamp again. "Where were we?"

"The village being suspicious," Judy noted, and Angie's face lit up at once.

"See? She gets it!"

To be fair, my lovely assistant was also certifiably spending too much time on the internet, but I digress.

"I don't know," Elly mused with a finger on her lower lip, and after some more thinking, she slightly tilted her head for further emphasis. "I mean, everything they told us makes sense."

"Exactly. It makes too much sense, which means…" Judy put down her notebook and skipped over to her bag, only to return with her funky party glasses. "Chief? Can you hear me?"

Well, crap.

I took a deep breath and got out of Far Sight, then gingerly grabbed my sword's hilt.

"Listen, Cal. Don't get mad, but…"

A solid minute of heated bargaining later, I closed my eyes again and returned to the scene in the tavern room. Surprisingly enough, there was an eighth person in the room now, though there were still only seven bodies. Someone should write a murder mystery with that premise, or something.

Anyhow, the semi-transparent body of Grimmy stood next to the class rep, and she just finished saying, "… analysis concludes that there is indeed a void of energy currents within this region. In theory, such a phenomenon could result in the described effect."

"In other words, the idea of people being sucked here after a failed crossing attempt is technically plausible," Ammy concluded, and I waited for her to finish before I turned on my communicator.

"Hey, Dormouse. Sorry for being late." Judy's eyes opened a bit wider, and she immediately raised a palm to forestall any further discussion. In the meantime, I told her, "I'm in worse shape than I thought, so I can only talk for a quarter of an hour—"

"{Ten minutes, young knight, and not a minute more!}"

"{Correction: Technically, it's only nine minutes and twenty-seven seconds.}"

I did my best to stifle the groan clawing at the base of my throat and amended, "Cal won't let me speak for more than ten minutes, so ask away."

"Understood." She picked up her notepad again and tapped her pen against it. "First question: did you have anything to do with this place, in either the Watsonian or the Doylist sense?"

Everyone other than Elly and the class rep (and maybe Snowy) looked stumped by her question, and even I needed a few seconds to untangle her meaning.

"No on the Watsonian front. As I said, I'm practically stuck here, and I can only sneak out into town on foot. There's no way I could set up something this elaborate. As for the Doylist option… if you mean whether future-me retconned this place into existence in preparation for your arrival, your guess is as good as mine. Ask me after the finale is over."

She diligently listened to me and then told everyone, "The Chief, as he is, doesn't have anything to do with this."

"Why did we even presume that Brother would?" came the obvious question from Penny, and she received less of a response and more of a cacophony.

"Because it's Leo."/"It's him we're talking about."/"Duh, it's Leo!"

Those words came from Ammy, Josh, and Angie, respectively, and the rest didn't seem to disagree either. I had no idea how to feel about any of that, but before I could digest that, Judy levelled the next question at me.

"Any advice?"

"I don't know. This is the first time I've seen this place," I admitted, and after some further consideration, I also added, "In my professional opinion, if this place had something to do with future-me, then it should be safe, but… I'm supposed to be off the board right now, so I probably shouldn't steal Josh's spotlight by advising you guys from the shadows. Tell you what? I'll keep an eye out with Far Sight and call you if I see something suspicious. Otherwise, act in your best judgment."

Judy nodded along and then pointedly looked at the only guy at the table.

"The Chief says we have his full confidence, and that we should trust our instincts."

Once again, that wasn't literally what I said, but it did sound better than my version, so I let it slide.

"In that case…" Josh hesitated, but only for a moment. "Let's make the most of this situation. If these people really are from all over the Abyss, this might prove to be an invaluable opportunity to gather insights and up-to-date news. We shouldn't squander that, so let's mingle a little." He swept his gaze over the people present, including the hologram. "Any objections?"

"I just wanna go to sleep," Angie grumbled, and since the rest weren't exactly fresh either, they all agreed to turn in for the night.

I also cut the connection with Judy (though first she handed the glasses to Elly so that I could introduce her to Ollie as well), and watched them as they all settled down in their rooms. Not before setting up various flavours of magical alarms and defences, of course.

And that's how the first day of the gang's expedition to the Abyss ended. Not with a bang, but with quiet snoring.

Part 2

"Thank you for the meal!"

"Haha! Don't mention it, kids!" The tavern-keep's lips curved into a satisfied grin, and he winked at Angie. "I should be the one to thank you for the business! Dig in, while it's still hot!"

It was a bit after lunchtime when the gang gathered again at the now-familiar tavern. I've once read that originally these kinds of places were a kind of all-in-one traveller's rest stops that took care of drinks, food, and lodging, and this establishment certainly kept the tradition alive. On the flip-side, it was oddly deserted at this hour, and while I wasn't sure the group caught on yet, I was pretty sure it was because the majority of the villagers were eating in a large communal food court at the other side of the central square.

I didn't know the logistics of that, but it allowed Josh and company to eat in peace and discuss their findings in something approaching privacy. Only after eating, of course, and they all focused on the generously portioned dishes in front of them with the eyes of hungry wolves. I could understand that, since they'd been moving non-stop since the sun came up, gathering information and doing odd-jobs in the process to get in the good graces of the village folk.

On my end, I'd been running myself a bit ragged since the morning, as I tried my best to keep track of as many variables as possible. That, of course, included the gang's activities as well, but there were a bunch of other fronts to keep in mind at the same time. For a start, I confirmed that nobody on Critias was aware of these guys sneaking into the Abyss yet. I mean, nobody besides Tajana. And the Fauns. … And maybe Roland.

Okay, so on second thought, a few people were aware, but none of big guns knew that they were in the Abyss, at least for now. There were a couple of others who were aware that the gang was on a 'training trip' though, and the adults could be divided into two groups regarding their opinion on the matter.

On one side, we had the Draconic Federation folks, whose reaction could be best summed up as, 'Well, of course they're training! A big battle is coming; they must be excited for it!', because both the Knights and the Draconians had a bit of a battle maniac streak. On the Assembly side, the arch-mages considered that taking Amelia out of the spotlight while the mess around Lord Marzanna's actions and the collusions between the various Magi and Celestial renegades was sorted out to be just fine.

Maybe it was because they were all overwhelmed with bureaucracy and diplomatic firefighting like this that nobody deigned to closely scrutinise why this collection is super-important teenagers decided to take a collective vacation in the middle of nowhere without any adult supervision. I had a feeling that once they managed to get their heads over the water and start asking questions, some heads would roll (metaphorically, of course)… unless, of course, the Abyss-arc spills over to Critias before that, in which case all hell will break loose anyway.

That said, some people were already mad, though not for the reason I would've expec— No, scratch that. It was entirely in character for… Well, let's just take a look at them for a demonstration, shall we?

Inside the base's training grounds, a wild duel was unfolding, shaking the entire main hall with its impacts.

"Like, I'm sooo totally mad!" a familiar brown girl yelled, her hair and custom skimpy robes fluttering as she threw a series of punches at the air, with four semi-transparent hands mimicking her motions behind her.

"You're mad!? Then how am I supposed to feel!?" her opponent, a draconian youth with burning red hair, bellowed back at her and flexed his arms. Next to him, a pair of semi-transparent reptilian arms, topped with four-fingered paws, lashed out and met the punches raining down towards him with strikes of his own.

I've seen him using a similar draconic technique during the battle with Marzanna's goons, and I imagined that this variant was directly inspired by the signature spell of the rejuvenated ex-arch-mage. Each time the spectral appendages met, their contact released shockwaves that buffeted their clothes and made the ground shake beneath their feet.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"But, like, I wanted to train with them too!" Sahi yelled, bending her upper body left and right like some famous anime boxer, while Zihao growled and made a bunch of hand seals instead, like some famous anime ninja.

"You already had the opportunity to train with them in the Elysium! I wasn't even invited that time!"

Once he finished his motions, a semi-transparent dragon's head appeared behind him. The Asian dragon type, with the mane and the whiskers and stuff. If I squinted, it kind of looked like Xiao's true form, but then it distorted as it opened its mouth and released a burst of fire. Not dragon-fire, aka the variously coloured wave motion beam attack, but an actual wave of orange flames.

"Like, don't be a total loser-o-rama!" Sahi yelled back and thrust her hands forward, summoning two more hands. The six unleashed a flurry of blows, and while one of them was disintegrated in the process, the flame was also extinguished. She heaved a deep breath, then struck a pose and exclaimed, "I wasn't invited either. Like, if you wanted to come along, you should've totally made up an excuse like I did!"

"This time they didn't even tell me they would be going!" Zihao argued back, and as he lurched forward, the talons of his summoned dragon arms dug into the concrete of the training field.

"Hey! Like, they didn't tell me either, and like, I'm totally not spazzing out!" the brown girl yelled… while her magic hands were pounding the ground in a display of impotent rage.

"My rage is justified! My rival just ignored me and left me behind!"

The two of them were just about to get ready for round two… but then, suddenly, a barrier made of neatly packed hexagonal panels sprang up between the two of them, making Sahi blink and then glare at her left.

"Hey, Paz! I totally told you not to—" Her words came to a sudden halt, and then she immediately dismissed her magic hands. "O-Oh! Hi, um… Uncle Gulliver? Like, what brings you here?"

He wasn't alone. The lanky arch-mage was flanked by Lord Barnabas, Morgana, and Naoren as well. Needless to say, the impromptu duel was quickly brought to an end and was followed by a well-deserved scolding, but I didn't stay around for that, because there was something else that caught my attention.

A moment later, my point of view was inside Castle Nergal, where Crowy was having a belated lunch with the original owner of the place. Or, considering I've seen them get started about an hour ago, maybe they were just eating really slowly.

Lately, I've been trying to make a habit out of rapid-cycling the usual Far Sight targets. Since I could only pay attention to one of them at a time, and I had literally hundreds of marks, it was hard to keep track of everything at once. Even when I limited my attention to just a dozen or so VIPs, it took about twenty seconds to glance at each one of them, a minute or more if I actually slowed down and tried to figure out the context of what I was looking at. Needless to say, I did one of these sweeps while watching Sahi and Zihao getting scolded, which let me catch this curious exchange.

"Is your informant reliable?" asked Crowy, sitting at the head of a long feast table filled with dishes. He was in his standard dark purple outfit, cape and all, and had a rather sour look on his face.

"Absolutely," Belette Nergal responded from the other end of the table.

The silver-haired Abyssal was sitting as far from Crowy as possible, though I figured it had less to do with keeping distance and more with both of them technically being 'at a head of the table' of opposite ends, and sitting anywhere else would've been seen as subordinating themselves to the other. Not that it would've mattered, because there was not a single other soul in the lavish dining room, and it was so quiet they barely even needed to raise their voices to hear each other.

"So what you're telling me," Crowy spoke while leisurely cutting a piece of meat, "Is that the previous news about the Shamash bringing in reinforcements from the outside was but a misdirection."

"Precisely," the Nergal Patriarch nodded with a thin-lipped smile and took a sip from a tall wine glass. "They must've leaked the information to our spies, hoping that we would focus our attention on House Shamash's territory while the Gulas and the Enlils could strike us in the back. They even went as far as to open a gateway, but my informant assured me that neither Fidèle nor anyone else came through."

"So it was a ruse. How pathetic," Crowy grumbled. "I'll show them that their petty mind-games are meaningless. I shall lead the assault on the northern frontlines, personally."

"Shouldn't we inform the Emperor first? Aren't you still recovering from the fight with the Peacemaker?"

The emphasis he put on the word 'Emperor' was odd; a veneer of deference masking frustration, and maybe even disdain? Something like that. On the other hand, the fact that was still calling me by that moniker just gave me the creeps.

Crowy frowned and put down his knife and fork, then looked the other man in the eye.

"The Emperor doesn't need to concern himself with such trifles. As for my health, refer to that bastard by that title again, and I will demonstrate my vigour to you on your very skin."

"Ah, slip of the tongue," Belette responded glibly, but the way his eyes were shaking told me he was more than wary of Crowy's outburst.

Also, the fact that we both hated that sobriquet made me feel genuinely dirty. Ugh.

More importantly, since they returned to their meal after that, I did another quick sweep and realised that Josh and company finished the majority of their food and were already in the process of discussing their findings at the table.

"… practiced my magic." That was the end of a sentence coming from Ammy, followed by a sigh. "I mean, getting used to the flow of mana here is nice, but why are they only asking for earthworks?"

Her gripes were met with a giggle from Penny, and when Ammy glared at her, my sister hastily waved her hands.

"S-Sorry, I wasn't laughing at you! I just imagined them telling you about their problems, and then you trying to figure out how to do it with fireballs. You know? Like in the campaign."

"We aren't playing an RPG now," Josh pointed out.

"R-Right! And it's not like I only care about fireballs, or anything," the class rep agreed with a slightly sulky grumble, and while my dear assistant had a 'I'm clearly skeptical, but I'm not saying anything out of politeness' kind of reaction, Angie nodded along and pushed the topic in an unexpected direction.

"But, I mean, it's really like we're in an RPG! Think about it! We're in a tavern, we went around the village to do quests, and we got paid in coins! I love it!"

"Right, right!" Penny reached into the pouch on her belt and produced a few of the coins in question. "They have cool designs, too! Maybe we should take some home as souvenirs for Mom and Dad. Uncle Roland, too."

"Guys, guys," Josh interjected while showing his palms. "Can we focus, please? We're in…" He paused to look around, and despite nobody listening in, he lowered his voice anyway. "We're in enemy territory. Take this seriously."

"Oookay."

Angie's half-serious response drew a sigh out of the guy, so he turned back to the class rep.

"Let's continue where we left off. You said that the structure of the Ley lines here is similar to the ones in Elysium, right?"

Ammy responded with a firm, "Correct."

"How does that affect the plan?"

"It's good news," she insisted, but then she added a slightly less confident, "Although, I have to make direct contact with one of the Mana Wells to be one hundred percent sure."

"At least we're on the right track." He turned to my girlfriends next. "Did you find anything?"

"I've completed the demographic analysis of the village," Judy responded without batting an eyelid.

"That's… neat, but I meant more along the lines of… something that's useful for our plan?"

"We collected lots of gossip," Elly chimed in. "They were mostly things we've already heard about, but there were a few things about the civil war."

"Such as?" Josh prompted her, and this time it was Judy who interjected first.

"Seventy-seven percent of the people we asked said they thought Noir had an advantage in the war. Sixty-two percent thought that the Nergals would eventually stab him in the back. Eighty-nine percent said that it was only a question of time before House Ninhursag would enter the civil war, but they didn't seem to care whose side they would join."

"We've also got directions towards the closest cities," the princess added, like a cherry on top.

"Don't we already have a map?" Penny asked, and she turned to Snowy.

"Y-Yes, I made one last night. It's still in our room," my other sister explained, then smiled at Elly. "If you can tell me what they told you, I think I can figure out exactly where we are."

"That would be helpful," Josh concluded and focused on my sisters. "Did you find anything useful?"

"This place has big rats!" Penny exclaimed with a grin. "Or, like… I'm pretty sure they were some kind of rodent, and they were really mean, too! I was asked to help hunt a bunch, and I got a whole lot of coins!"

She shook the pouch on her belt, making a satisfying jingling sound.

"Lili?"

Addressed directly, Snowy shook her head.

"I couldn't find much. The people here… they must still think I'm related to Lady Shamash, o-or at least the direct descendant of one of the Noble Houses, so it's hard to make them let their guard down around me."

"Can't you just use your Seducer thingie on them?" came the stray question from the Celestial girl at the table, but Snowy immediately shook her head.

"No. I-I mean, I could, but ever since the accident, I…" She subtly glanced at Penny, then back at the table. "I try not to use it unless it's absolutely necessary."

"I wouldn't say it's absolutely necessary, but…" Josh began, but seeing her expression, backpedalled before finishing the sentence. "Fine. Go at it at your own pace. I'm sure they'll open up to you in no time." He exhaled hard and turned to his girlfriend. "Now it's our turn, right?"

"Yes, but… was I the only one who thought the way Neige looked at Penelope just now was super sus?"

Josh rolled his eyes and delivered a light chop on top of the Celestial girl's head with a deadpan, "Stop it," then faced the group again, completely ignoring the soft 'Boo!' coming from his side. "We collected intel in the hospital."

"Do you mean the big building?" Ammy cut in, sounding oddly dumbfounded. "Is it really a hospital?"

"Yeah!" Angie, already over their previous exchange, beamed at her with unbridled enthusiasm. "There were lots of patients, too!"

"Patients," Judy repeated after her, notebook in hand. "Were they also victims of gateway collapses?"

Josh shook his head with a quiet, "I don't think so. I asked around while Angie was treating them, and they seem to be victims of the civil war."

"Refugees?" Elly guessed, and Josh let out an ambivalent noise.

"Maybe. Most of them were from places where the Noble Houses clash over territory, but I didn't wanna stretch my luck, so I didn't dig too deep."

Meanwhile, the princess turned to Angie next.

"And you were treating them? Won't they realize you're a Celestial?"

"I can be really subtle if I want, you know?" she responded with an impish smirk, followed by a slightly more solemn, "Seriously though, they only have one healer, and he's not great. Maybe Abyssals are just not that good with healing magic?"

"I… can't deny that," Snowy said in a mousy voice, but then Josh grabbed the reins of the conversation again.

"To answer your question, we were careful, but I have a feeling that even if some suspected Angie, they didn't seem to care."

"Isn't that odd?" the class rep inquired with a troubled frown. "Aren't the Abyssals and Celestials mortal enemies?"

As the resident Abyss expert, it was Snowy's turn to shine again, and she hastily explained, "N-Not really. I mean, it's more like the Noble Houses really don't like Elysium and the Celestial Intelligence Network, but individual Celestials are… fine, I guess?"

"We should still try to keep a low profile," Josh concluded and put his hands onto the table. "That's all we have for now. What are everyone's plans for the afternoon?"

"I was invited to hunt boars!" Penny exclaimed right away. "I mean, I think they are some kind of wild pigs, and they look really mean, but hunting them pays a lot of coins!"

"I'm having déjà vu…" Angie whispered, while the others continued to rattle off their plans.

"I'm going to borrow Neige," Judy stated, much to my sister's surprise. "We found a group of Fauns, and we plan to question them, but neither of us knows Faunish. They might also open up to you quicker than to us."

"Yep! And this way Judy won't have to hide behind me all the time!" Elly declared with zero ill intent, but my assistant kicked her on the shin under the table anyway. As always, she was comically inept at inflicting violence, so the princess only let out a startled, "Hm? Is something the matter?"

"It is perfectly natural, even rational, to be cautious around unknown Fauns," Judy declared with more than just a hint of wounded pride in her deadpan voice, but before that skit could develop, Josh and Angie picked up the thread of the discussion.

"I guess we're gonna go back to the hospital and collect more intel," the guy started, and his girlfriend nodded along.

"The doctor said he'll give us a reward if we heal ten people! I'm already done with six!"

"I've also got some pocket money," Elly chimed in with a grin. "I helped a granny with some vegetables while Judy was interviewing her!"

"How much money do we have in total?" Josh's question made everyone count their proverbial pennies, and once it was added up, he let out a thoughtful hum. "We already have enough to stay the night. It might be wise to do that and stick around until we're ready to move out."

"Leave it to me! I'll catch a whole bunch of piggies and pay for dinner!" Penny declared with altogether too much enthusiasm.

"Then… Then I'll heal twenty patients, and get a bonus from the quest-giver!" Angie doubled down, much to his boyfriend's mild annoyance.

"I told you, this isn't a game," he griped, only to be summarily ignored.

"I'll look for more grannies in need of help then," the princess was next, and to everyone's surprise, the class rep also joined the fray.

"I'm planning to earn some money too, you know? I don't want to be a dead weight!"

"Aren't you already doing earthworks, or something?"

Angie's question didn't have any ill will, yet Ammy still puffed up her cheek.

"That was just for practice! To get used to the Ley lines here! I have something else lined up, you know?" She must've mistook everyone's silence for skepticism, because she continued with extra vehemence. "I'm honest. I was asked by one of the locals to help her make bricks for the new well they're digging! And I'm going to do it with… erm…"

The way she suddenly faltered made everyone raise curious brows at her, and it was Josh who acted on that curiosity first.

"You're gonna do it with what?"

"With… fire… balls."

How did the saying go? You can take the player away from their pyromaniac character, but you can't take the pyromaniac character out of a player. Or something in that (fire)ballpark.

Part 3

Time passed quickly as I tried my best to keep an eye on the gang exploring the oddly idyllic Abyssal village. They agreed to meet up at the tavern at dinnertime, and since things worked out for them more or less as planned, they were now spending time a bit more leisurely.

My girlfriends and Snowy finished interviewing the Fauns in record time, mostly because they didn't provide much tangible new information. That made Judy a bit grumpy, but it was soon forgotten when they stumbled into the food court of the village and all three of them unanimously decided to help with the cooking.

Meanwhile, Penny completed her hunting trip and returned with a wild boar the size of a small car. That was pretty shocking already, but according to the locals, these things were fairly common, and they had to hunt them to make sure they didn't literally upturn half the surrounding forests. That made me wonder about the ecosystem of the Abyss all over again. I've heard about 'island gigantism', but I was pretty sure it was more of a 'small animals get bigger, big animals get smaller on islands' kind of deal, not 'already big animals get humongous'.

Though again, I had a couple of other potential explanations in mind, ranging from selective breeding of whatever local fauna was available for domestication to magical experimentation going wrong, but I didn't have much time to think about it. Why? Because my sister grabbed hold of the class rep, and it somehow turned into an outdoor barbecue party. Go figure.

As for the childhood friends, they finished their good Samaritan stunt at the hospital, and they were currently exploring the village streets while sharing a bag of simple pastries. I figured they got them from one of the thankful patients, or maybe it was an extra bonus from the doctor.

In any case, they kept wandering for a while, and I was just about to Far Glance at someone else when the guy suddenly threw his head back and frowned.

"Man, I just can't get used to this…" Josh muttered.

After a few startled blinks, Angie followed his example and looked up as well. Her brows gradually scrunched up as she tried to figure out what he was referring to, but when she failed to find anything out of the ordinary, she sent him a sideways glance.

"The… sky?"

"Yeah." Seeing that she didn't get it, Josh turned to face her and pointed up at the same time. "Why is it red?"

"… Didn't Neige say that it's always been like that?"

"Yeah, but I'm asking why? The sky of Elysium looked normal, so why's this one colored like that?"

The Celestial girl promptly shrugged with a mildly confounded, "How the heck am I supposed to know?"

"I mean…" Josh conspicuously glanced left and right, then leaned closer to whisper. "Shouldn't Deus know? Didn't she… I mean, he… Whatever. The point is, both the Abyss and Elysium were made while Deus was around, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't think Deus had anything to do with it. Not directly, I mean…" She paused, and after some pondering, she declared, "I'm gonna ask later!"

"Later? Why not now?"

"I think she's sleeping right now."

That made Josh stop in his tracks and raise a critical brow at her.

"You think?"

"Hey, it's not easy sharing a body, you know? Some stuff is just hard to explain."

"I get it, I get it. Geez." Josh raised his palms in surrender, then let out a shallow sigh, and they continued their idle wandering down the street. "Seriously though, if not for the red skies, this place would be pretty cosy."

"Idunno, I think it's nice either way," Angie responded absently as she followed the direction of her boyfriend's gaze. "You know, this really isn't how I imagined the Abyss in the past. I always thought it would be full of angry spiky stuff and horny people."

"Horned," Josh corrected her, but the Celestial girl huffed and puffed in return.

"Potayto, potahto. You know what I mean."

"Yeah, sure, but to be fair, Elysium wasn't exactly what we expected either."

"Fair, fair."

They continued to slowly amble in silence for a while, and I was just about to look for greener pastures when Josh suddenly blurted out, "Hold on. I'm kinda seeing a parallel here."

"Parallel?"

Angie looked a bit stumped by his sudden declaration, so he hastily clarified, "I mean, think about it. We ended up in Elysium because we were jumped back home, and then we got entangled in the whole Deus prophecy thing along with Leo. Just like how Lili's brother jumped me back home and almost dragged me here because of the whole Emperor prophecy thing."

"Right. Now that you mention it, it's kinda similar." Sha paused for a second, but then shook her head. "Actually, it's not that similar. I mean, Leo's Director friends didn't know I was related to the prophecy of Deus."

My what?

"Yeah, we just kinda got caught in that, but it still makes me wonder what would've happened if I somehow ended up here. Would I really have been dragged into another prophecy?"

No, seriously. My what? Since when were the ex-directors my 'friends'?

Of course, since I couldn't contact them, I had no way to correct their mistaken assumptions either, and the conversation quickly moved on, so I didn't dwell on it for long either.

"Now that you mention it, remember when Leo used to insist that you were the chosen one of all of these prophecies? Good times."

"Let's agree to disagree." After grumbling a bit more, the guy grimaced and blurted out, "Now that I think about it, didn't that whole prophecy business turn out to be hogwash? I mean, you're Deus, Ammy is the Conduit, Leo's got the Knights because he pulled out a fancy sword from a rock, and Lili's brother is this Herald thing. I ended up being the only unimportant one!"

"Actually, didn't Friedrich and his friends develop the machine that powers up Draconians using your ability to absorb powers? Their prophecy was about the revival of the bloodlines, and you're kinda responsible for that."

Josh eyed his girlfriend with the kind of disapproval entirely reserved for people who are peddling uncomfortable truths, and he burst out in an indignant, "If that's true, then these prophecies suck monkey-balls!"

This was mid-afternoon, with everyone out working, so Josh's public exclamation fortunately didn't draw much attention. What attention it did draw, however, was a rather peculiar one.

"Oh, my? Are you talking about prophecies, my dears?"

Coepi Urbs, or whatever this place was called, was a small-ish and fairly isolated settlement, so there wasn't much commerce to be made. From what I gathered, there were only two or three small general shops in the village, and Josh just happened to voice his indignation in front of one of them, just when the proprietor was busy sweeping the front porch. Not only that, but it was a familiar face, too. Namely, the elderly woman with faded cyan hair woven into a single, thick braid, peeking out of under her colourful floral-print headscarf, contrasting hard with her drab brown and black dress.

She smiled at the pair and put her broom to the side, and that was enough of a signal to make Angie skip over to her side with an ear-to-ear grin of her own. Extrovertism: one of the lesser-known superpowers.

"Good afternoon!"

"My, aren't you a lively one!" the elderly shopkeeper chuckled and glanced over to Josh in turn. "Are you interested in the prophecy of the Emperor? Don't be shy. It's only natural, seeing how the world changed because of it."

"We wouldn't want to—"

"Yes!" Angie cut Josh short before he could respond properly, and sent him a 'Aren't we here to collect info?' kind of look.

"… Yes, we'd like to hear more," the guy relented, but still tagged a grumpy, "But only if you have the time."

"Oh, don't worry, dearies. Business is in the doldrums at this hour, so I have the time. Come inside!"

Following her urging, the duo entered the unassuming storefront. The inside was… more or less as expected. It was something of a variety store, and it had a truly eclectic collection of wares on display, from carpentry tools and children's toys to sewing kits and honest-to-goodness bows and arrows. The latter, in particular, immediately captured Angie's attention, but she quickly stopped gawking and caught up to Josh and the elderly woman at the counter.

She pulled out a large three-legged stool and sat down, then produced a rosewood pipe with a long, curved stem, stuffed it with some shredded dry leaves, and finally snapped her finger a couple of times. There was a flash of magic; whether it came from her fingers or the pipe itself was hard to tell, but soon the contents of the bowl ignited into a gentle smoulder and she made a long draw.

"You see, dearies," she began by using the stalk of her pipe to point at Josh in particular. "The Prophecy of the Emperor is old. Really old. Even my own grandmother's grandmother told her it was a story of olden times, and nowadays, fewer and fewer people tell the tale. Even fewer took it seriously. Until recently, that is." She let out a low chuckle and took another draw of her pipe. "Do you know how the old story goes?"

"It's that… there would be a Herald who could absorb the power of the Abyss?" Josh responded first, and Angie was eager to follow up.

"Oh, oh! And then, he would herald the return of Bel of the… um… It was 'the Tenebrous Flames', right?"

The shopkeeper exhaled a mouthful of thin white smoke and let out a quiet chuckle.

"No, deary. That's not how the story goes."

"It isn't?" Josh blurted out in surprise, and the old woman looked at him with eminent amusement in her deep blue eyes.

"People nowadays see it that way, because the Emperor of the olden days is back, but when my grandmother told me the prophecy when I was but a wee child, there was no mention of him at all." She drew on her pipe again, without breaking eye contact with Josh, as if to purposefully raise the tension. "You see, dearie, people say that the Lord of Inanna channelling the power of the Great Sources hidden within the fortresses of the Seven Noble Houses is what 'absorbing the power of the Abyss', as you put it, meant all along. Then the Emperor came back and publicly declared him his Herald, and at that point, there was little room for doubt, but that's not how the original tale goes."

"What does it say then?" Angie chimed in, looking unexpectedly hyped by the conversation. "Is there some kind of secret we don't yet know about?"

"Secret? Maybe," the old woman chuckled with a meaningful smile. "You see, dearies, the Herald was supposed to come from the outside, not from the Abyss. Not just that, but the Herald was supposed to come to the Abyss first, and then the Emperor was meant to come second, so how could the Emperor come first and appoint a Herald like that?"

"Yeah, that doesn't make much sense…" Josh mused, his eyes focused on the old woman and his fingers unconsciously rubbing his chin. "Does that mean Lili's brother might not be the Herald after all?" The shopkeeper looked at him funny, so he hastily amended, "I mean, the… erm… Lord of Inanna?"

"But if he's not the Herald, then wouldn't that mean that Bel isn't the Emperor?" Angie asked on the side, but she shook her head in denial as soon as she finished speaking. "No, Bel is definitely the Emperor, but maybe… he wasn't supposed to be the Emperor the prophecy was about?"

The old woman pretended to be confused by the discussion between the two, but her eyes remained calm, and I could see the corners of her mouth twitch, as if trying to suppress a grin.

"Ma'am, can you tell us more?" Josh, for once, made a decisive move and pleaded with the shopkeeper, but after a long beat, she drew on her pipe again and exhaled the smoke in a powerless sigh.

"I would love to help you, my dearies, but the old grey stuff in here just doesn't work the way it used to…" she lamented as she tapped the stem of the pipe against her temple. However, before anyone else could get a word in, her expression bloomed into a smirk, and she let out a soft 'Ah!' as she rose to her feet. "But fear not! As luck would have it, I just happen to have what you need!"

She turned around and reached out to the nearest cabinet, where a bunch of books were lined up on the shelves, right next to the cooking utensils and other miscellaneous kitchen items. She browsed the titles for a while until her eyes lit up with recognition and she dexterously pulled out a thin volume from the middle of the row.

"Look here! An original, first edition copy of 'Legends and Folk Tales of the Abyss' by the famous Conteur Ushum himself, in its original leather binding! I knew I still had it lying around somewhere!" She presented the book in its deep blue binding to the duo so that they could read its title themselves.

Of course, they couldn't. While they spoke the same language as everyone else (odd accents notwithstanding), the Abyss had its own writing system that was this unholy amalgamation of the aesthetics of Celestial Scrip and the letters of the alphabet used on Critias. It was kind of like an extremely warped version of the cursive writing one would see in old medieval manuscripts, and I could kinda-sorta read it if I squinted hard enough, but that was mostly due to sheer exposure from spying on Crowy's and Dimas's paperwork.

The childhood friend duo didn't have such exposure, so they had to take the old woman's word for it.

"I'm reluctant to part with this book, but I've heard you've been helping around the village all morning, and it would do more good in the hands of bright youth like yourselves than collecting dust on the shelves of this old lady, so… How does sixty-five Coins sound to you?"

"… Pardon?" Josh blurted out, his expression slack from surprise.

For the record, the two of them got paid a little over fifty Coins, the generically named local currency, for helping out in the hospital, so it was straight up beyond their budget. Of course, the shopkeep (probably) didn't know this, so when she saw Josh's reaction, she immediately doubled down.

"Believe it or not, this old book was passed down to me by my grandmother, who received it from her grandmother! It's practically a family heirloom, so sixty-five Coins is almost as low as I can go in good conscience."

"Yes, I mean…" Josh floundered, only to exhale hard and raise a palm. "Give us a second."

He pulled Angie aside, and the two of them got into a conspiratorial huddle.

"What do we do? Should we look for the others and borrow some money from them?" Angie proposed, but Josh shot her idea down.

"I'm not even sure that book has any value, let alone sixty-five coins. We could rent the room at the tavern for three days for the same money." He glanced over his shoulder, then back to Angie. "Also, can we even read that book? I couldn't make sense of the title."

"Neige could read it for us. Probably."

"Probably," Josh conceded the point, but not the argument. "Still, it's too much."

"But it might be a quest item! I've done enough DM-ing to recognize a plot hook if I see one!"

"I told you to stop treating this as a game," the guy chided her, but then stifled a groan and added, "But I admit that this granny got her hook in us."

Angie was about to say something, but then she suddenly closed her mouth and blinked a few times.

"Hey? Deus is awake now, and she says she has an idea!"

"… Okay, I bite. What is it?"

"She says he used to haggle a lot at the markets when she was young, so she wants to give it a go."

Josh considered their options for a moment and ultimately nodded in agreement.

"It's worth a try. Just make sure not to piss her off, or something."

The response from that request came not from Angie, but Deus, as her eyes were already in a golden amber hue and she let out a haughty scoff.

"Just watch and bask in my greatness, Boy!" she declared and turned on her heel, then marched up to the counter. She paused for dramatic effect, then suddenly slapped the countertop and exclaimed, "Do you think I was born yesterday, woman? If this brand-new book is really a family heirloom of yours, I'll eat my sandals! I'm willing to give twenty coins; take it or leave it!"

That… wasn't off to a great start, and I was eager to see where this was going… only for someone to choose this exact moment to violently shake me out of my Far Sight.

"W-What?"

"Hey, wake up! We're in trouble!"

It took me a couple of long seconds to focus, and then I threw the hand off my shoulder.

"Oh, come on! We were just getting to the funny part!" I complained as I sat up on my bed, only to freeze and squint at the unexpected interloper. "What are you doing here?"

"It's not important!" The Girl snapped at me, with only her upper body sticking out of a familiar portal and her voice sounding like a swarm of angry sparrows. "Listen, there's trouble, and the others are looking for you, and why are you in prison, anyway?"

"It's a long story, and…" I responded reflexively, only to lurch to a halt as her words sank in. "When you mean 'they are looking for me', who are you talking about?"

"*************, ********************, and ****. Who else?" she responded with undisguised indignation, and she was clearly referring to The Man, The Woman, and The Boy.

"Oh, good. For a moment, I thought the Predator Moon made a move." I was slightly relieved, but only slightly.

"Uncle Polemos? Who's that?"

I shouldn't have been surprised, considering how much noise we made, but Ollie was already at the door of my chamber and eyeing the blonde girl sticking out of her portal with clear apprehension.

"Ah… Don't worry, Beansprout, it's just a… erm… guest." I glanced between the two and then hurriedly added, "He's Eolienne. I'm looking after him at the moment. Ollie, she's…" I almost said 'The Girl', but the word got caught in my throat, realising how silly it sounded to introduce someone like that. On second thought, I spent quite some time trying to come up with alternative, less nondescript names for the four Emergents, so before I knew it, I blurted out, "She's Oriole. She's a friend, so no need to be alarmed."

"Oriole?" the kid repeated after me, followed by a soft giggle. "That's a funny name."

I sucked in a breath. The Emergents had been receptive to my naming schemes, but I was afraid that springing one on her like that was maybe a bit too presumptuous, and Ollie calling it 'funny' probably didn't help things. Yet, when I looked at her, The Girl was not only less frantic than before, she looked downright bashful.

"Eh… ehehe…" Her awkward chuckles came to a halt when our eyes met, and she suddenly flushed red, which… somehow also affected her planetary image as well. I didn't even know planets could blush. It only lasted until she abruptly pointed at me and said, "We… We'll talk about this later!"

She then immediately ducked into her portal… only to then come out of it again and point at me once more.

"Ah! And come to my Domain right away! Seriously, we'll be in so much trouble if we can't figure out how to explain this!"

"Explain—" 'what?' is what I would've said, if she didn't disappear from the conversation for a second time, and this time her hole in reality also disappeared with her, leaving behind a pregnant silence.

"Uncle Polemos's friend is weird," Ollie stated the obvious, and while I was tempted to chide him, he wasn't exactly wrong in his assessment. "Are you leaving again?"

"No, I just need to lie down for a moment. You can go back to your room."

"Oh. Okay."

Ollie didn't dwell on what happened and casually skipped down the hallway. Once he was out of sight, I let out a pent-up breath, lay down on the bed again, and readied my special 'stubby' phantom limb, and poked my head with a quiet, "Let's see what the hubbub's all about…"

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