My, hello. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance; please allow me to introduce myself: I am the Magical Tome Histoire, guardian and advisor to the people and deities of Gamindustri.

Our world is orbiting a single, yellow star and currently holding 4,165,592,112... plus one... plus one... plus... eh, let me spare you the exact number of human inhabitants. Terribly sorry.

It has been 59,049 years since the system was put in place as is and only little longer since CPUs, Console Patron Units, began to spawn as gods and goddesses to watch over our world. I have guided them ever since.

It is a harmonic relationship between the deities and their people, the latter's reverence empowering the former to protect everyone. The faith that strengthens them is what we call Share Energy, a form of power without equal in this realm. In difference to the far more approachable and quantifiable magic, it is only CPUs who can wield Share Energy and put it to good use for their nations.

However, every nation falls in the end. Infighting is one reason, but more sinister means are likelier to cost a CPU's life. Oftentimes, entire generations are lost at once. Nations shatter when left without a deity, be it either due to powerful Monsters attacking, or the darker parts of human nature winning out. Much is lost each and every time.

Yet another always rises from the ashes. Human perseverance is unique indeed, for they always keep a hold of the previous nation's gifts; be those technology, art, or others. When the next generation of CPUs is born, they can build upon what is left from those that came before them, rising ever higher in the process.

...

Goodness me, I have been rambling again. I hope you can forgive me for that?

Ahem... despite everything that was said, CPUs are not the focus of this story. Just between the two of us, it would be rather bland if they were; there is little going on in a deity's day to day life, between work and what little free time they can find.

...although an exception could be made for the girl I chose as my current partner.

Humans, despite being comparably weak overall, have their own ways to shine. Great heroes rise from time to time, to stand aside the CPUs. It is all of them that keep a nation running, who work with each other and help those in need, allowing their protector to focus on the most important matters alone.

It is also humans who fight back the Monsters, courtesy of the Deity of Sin.

Despite your curiousity, I would rather not talk about Her in detail. Just know that She is anathema to all of existence... and there is no other cause that cost as many CPUs as fighting back Her advances. Hatred, strife and every other negative emotion empowers Her ever so much more, to rise again and make another attempt to bring forth the end.

But enough of this. I promised you a story of a human. Of a heroine.

Although... before we begin, how about a little glimpse at the current generation?

. .

. .

A thundering roar echoed over the plains and made birds flee; with it came the sound of crunching and a pained buzzing.

It was even terrain the creatures had gathered on; a veritable army now stood together. Behind them a robed figure holding up a blue staff faced down their similarly dressed opponent. All kinds of fantastic animals and even some barbarian warriors had come to their aid; there were cobras the size of cars, bears with two heads and even a rabid donkey rampaging against the comparably small horde arrayed before the red sorcerer.

However, despite just having lost their last house-sized beetle, the robed figure on that side kept calm and raised their red wand. The remains of most creatures they called upon so far still littered the battlefield, insectoid wings waving slightly in the upcoming wind.

"Tsk, I knew that was the wrong decision," the figure commented with a dismissive gaze on what had been their strongest creatures. There was a handful of small fry left, but they knew full well of how this was not enough of a sacrifice. Not if they wanted to summon something capable of withstanding the next charge.

There was, however, the Old Rules they just recalled.

Quickly reciting them, the figure began to smirk while their wand started to glow; a bright, scarlet light blinded the blue horde and the sorcerer's voice boomed: "With the blood of the fallen and the living, I call forth the creator of existence! Come, Ancient White Dragon of Apocalypse!"

The light died down on their last word, but wind came up and stopped the enemy creatures from charging their battered foe; the earth began to shake and crumble right in front of the smirking figure, their red wand solemnly directed at its epicenter.

A volcanoe started spitting ash into the sky far off in the distance while a creature rose from the ground, towering far above anything the blue horde could muster; it was, without doubt, a dragon. Its bleached-looking wings spread to reach over far to the forests to its right and to the wide lakes to its left; claws the size of houses tore open the earth ever further and twenty snake-like heads screamed a challenge at the heavens.

"Oi... this is getting slightly unfair," the other figure mumbled while quickly going through their options. Sadly, none of the spells they had at the ready would work due to the dragon's immunity to all magic. This looked bad.

"And now, my Ancient White Dragon of Apocalypse, attack them all and finish this duel!"

::

"You know... this is kind of lame."

"Yeah..."

Both sides put down their cards and the bespectacled man who just won the match sighed. "The game's really getting worse with every expansion..."

"Told you so," his taller companion replied with a small smirk and a wink. "But you just had to go and buy the new expansion anyway."

"I'm sorry, okay?" the first one defended himself, but quickly lowered his head and put his cards back into order. "Let's find something else to play."

While they were busy putting away their cards and browsing through the assortment of arcade-games offered to first-class travellers, the woman sitting behind them had to suppress a sigh. She knew the feeling those two had very well, seeing that she loved this particular game quite a bit herself. Heck, she actually had several outfits from its human characters back at home.

To think that she had been so proud about its origin being Lastation; now it really was more of an embarassment.

Alas, it could not be helped. Her nation brought forth this enjoyable game that had turned into an abomination. Some things worked, some things did not, that was life; of course, Noire was not the kind of person to just let life have its way normally, but there were limits on how much she could influence her industry.

Aside from that, today was her day off; no thinking about work, no matter how difficult it was.

Even with how boring this train ride ended up being so far. It had been hours of sitting and drawing rough drafts of what outfits she could sew next, a few blueprints for weapons she might forge to pass the time at home...

She quickly scratched out the doodle of a petite girl in a cute hoodie. No sir, that had never been there.

It was ridiculous, in a way. Goddess Black Heart, ruler of the most successful nation in Gamindustri, bored half to death by a few hours of free time. Noire sighed and smoothed out her grey skirt where the notepad ruffled it a little, then looked out of the window and at the rising sun. It was still early, all things considered. She would reach her destination no later than noon.

For now, the goddess marveled at the pastures her train passed. Far-stretching and green, they were much different than the desert that preceded them. Goddess Purple Heart, Neptune, did marvelous work in reshaping the land. Noire did her best to ignore the patrolling Bit-drones and wandering Monsters; this train was as safe as could be, protected by its fellow machines.

The Land of Purple Progress indeed. Planeptune.

A part of her reflection appeared on the window; a single red eye looking back at her, lips drawn into a half-smile and all other muscles in her face relaxed. It would not stay that way, she already knew; that was all the more reason to be greatful for the fact CPUs could not get wrinkles.

Noire was on her way to Planeptune's capital, Nicos. Just like every year, the four of them had found a date to come together and just... relax. It was Neptune's turn to choose a location this time, she was their hostess.

They allowed themselves no more than a single day for a vacation. She still believed even that much was unnecessary, considering how often CPUs traveled to discuss international business. Even when everyone stayed at home, they almost constantly talked to each other over Scope.

Alas, Neptune was not okay with that. She insisted they take at least a day to meet each other in person and without work looming over them. It made sense, in a way... and Noire got used to it by now. She just reallocated her workload and took shorter breaks in the interim. The moral victory in this matter was hers.

. .

. .

One only noticed how fast the train was going when it started to slow down.

On top of the decreasing momentum however, Noire got to marvel at the city she currently entered; Nicos was a sea of shining metal illuminated by the sun, its skyline dominated by the largest building in all of Gamindustri: Planeptower, the nation's main Basilicom, reached a full kilometre into the sky. Adding to it was the metal canopy wrapped over the buildings closest to it, as if the tower had donned a cape.

Of course Noire knew the specs, all the solar power panels worked into the canopy and how it supported the giant structure. Yet it was an amazing sight even after seeing it for the first time three hundred years ago. Neptune had it built over three decades, oftentimes joining the effort herself when she found time.

Unfortunately, the large tower soon fell out of sight when the rails led her ride from one of the larger parks into downtown; buildings in Planeptune generally grasped for the sky, so she could only get glimpses of what was behind the first row by looking in-between. It was not much longer until she could disembark from the train and stepped onto a clean station. Dozens of other passengers did the same before and after her. Probably right before rush hour, lucky her.

The CPU also noticed quite a few people that made the ride from Lastation take deep breaths and simply did the same. Air in Planeptune was much cleaner than in her own nation, mostly due to the fact that industry here worked off of alternative forms of energy. Her own factories ran mostly on coal and oil.

It was a little humid this day, so there might be rain approaching in the afternoon or evening. Depending on what her host planned, they might have to readjust their plans.

A faint breeze ruffled Noire's red shirt and made her twintails flutter lightly; the air felt nice on her skin. Though, going by their shivers, it might be a little cold to the humans around her.

There was no luggage to pick up and nothing else to take care of, so the CPU went for the stairway leading downward and headed toward the main terminal. She gently nudged a suitcase on the verge of falling over back up straight while passing by, but nothing else happened.

Nicos itself was... different. Where her own cities mostly relied on well-crafted stone and mortar for buildings and tar for the roads, her neighbouring nation built basically everything out of creamy grey plasteel and superhardened metal. The city shone like a jewel by day.

Then there were the people; all kinds of colours, from the hair on their heads to the clothes on their bodies... and they all had some place to be, some place to go.

Carefully maneuvering herself through the mass, Noire quickly took a stairway upward that brought her from the sidewalk up onto one of the walkways, the bands of hardened energy rolling throughout all of the city. It was... efficient, at least. Also confusing to people unused to basically walking on air, though Noire had a lot of practice from flying around. The walkways were mapped out rather extensively and their borders marked by forcefields to make sure no one fell off.

Yet, the ability to just see traffic pass below and head on to wherever one had to be was interesting, something that most did not get to see normally. It also allowed to split up the crowd somewhat, making the sidewalk on ground level more maneuverable. Not that there was much of a crowd left when Noire turned away from the downtown area, making her way to the outskirts of Nicos. Neptune gave them directions beforehand, so it was pretty easy to navigate the city.

Plus, the girl herself was already waiting in the middle of the sidewalk, perfectly visible in the small trickle of passersby.

Well, she was a woman by all means, but Noire was loathe to think of her as such; Neptune was a little less than a hundred and sixty centimetres tall, petite, and had two big d-pads clipped into her hair, left and right over her eyes. The white hoodie reaching lower than her skirt did not help the image, neither did the short and tousled looking hair; its colour was a bright purple, almost pink.

"Nowa!" And of course, she jumped her the moment Noire got in reach, clinging to the taller CPU with long-practiced ease. "You're here!"

She wanted to scowl and chide her, she really did. But it was nice to have someone be genuinely happy to see her. Neptune had been like that for as long as she could remember, anyway. So Noire just huffed and carefully plucked the lean arms off of herself. "Of course I am."

At least no one was paying much attention to them. This was not Lowee, where public displays of affection were discouraged. After setting down her colleague, Noire looked around. "Where are Blanc and Vert?"

"Not there yet," was what she got in response. Neptune turned around and wandered back to the building she had been standing at, a family restaurant. Nice, open facade and bright colours... that would be a good change of pace at least.

While taking up a position next to Neptune, Noire plucked her skirt back down from where it got a little wrinkled; the purplette just looked at her with this infuriating almost-smirk. Noire knew it always preceded some kind of comment, so just seeing it already strained her patience. She threw a calculating gaze back, only for Neptune to start beaming. "Yep, still no friends."

...

Noire just huffed and ignored the comment. Of course she had friends, she did so for a long time! The other CPU just never accepted the fact after their early years and continued teasing her like this; not everyone could be a social butterfly like Neptune and Vert.

"Naw, stop pouting at me, Nowa!"

"I am not pouting... and stop calling me that!"

It was, for lack of a better term, difficult to interact with Neptune. This sly little girl knew exactly what buttons to push to get through her guard... but at least she also knew when to stop.

"My, flirting so early into the day?"

Both of them turned their heads to look at the third member of their group; casually clad in a green and white sundress, with her curly blonde hair flowing down to her rear like a stream of liquid gold, was Vert. The tallest and also most developed member of their group smiled pleasantly at them, her eyebrows raised slightly and the mirth visible within the twinkling of her blue eyes.

Noire felt a faint blush creep onto her cheeks, but fought it down without mercy and snarled at the taller woman: "This was in no way flirting."

"Would there be any need to deny it so if there was no truth in it, Noire~?" It was said with a playful note on the name, then Vert hid her mouth behind a gloved hand to chuckle. "My, oh my~."

Fuming, Noire tried her best to give a retort; then she noticed quite a few more gazes being on them now. The lastationite CPU dressed a little more inconspicuously to not gain as much attention, but Vert played her eternal youth to the fullest with just a hint of cleavage on the dress, as well as quite a few frills and pristine white gloves to accentuate her being a classy lady.

And people looked at her, men and women alike.

"Nah, just teasing. Good to see you made it." Neptune immediately went in and wrapped her arms around the far taller woman, only for Vert to reciprocate and then press her face into aforementioned cleavage without a second thought. The blonde's hand went through her hair a few times before she answered: "But of course, I would not miss any of these rare occasions for the world."

Noire just rolled her eyes; that was so like Vert she did not even bother. Neptune played along and even buried her head deeper for a moment, then she let go and reemerged. The blonde turned to greet Noire as well, but she only raised an eyebrow at her old friend and held out a hand.

Neptune's clinginess she could bear with and Blanc was as happy about personal space as she was. Vert, however, was indecent to a fault. She thrived from the attention she garnered with her appearance and her preferred method of teasing was to be far too inappropriate. Such as right now, when she used the hand Noire held out to pull her into a tight hug as well, even though she all but told Vert she did not want that. "Yes, yes, hello Vert."

She bore it with stoicism born from centuries of this same song and dance. Of course she could try dodging the hugs, but Vert would just continue to try. Resisting made her more assertive, so the best bet was to ignore her until she lost interest and went to bother someone else.

It was a nice feeling to have these firm arms wrapped around her, granted... but not appropriate!

"Weird that you'd show up at the right moment to drop that line, though," Neptune noted while looking up and down the street. Then she pointed at a nearby crossroad. "You've been hiding around that corner, haven't you?"

After giving Noire one last squeeze, the blonde snickered and let go. "I am afraid I have been found out. In my defense, I rarely get the opportunity." Noire resisted rolling her eyes again; showing exasperation only spurred those two on and she was outnumbered right now.

Or not, considering who she just spied walking down the staircase nearby.

Shorter than even Neptune by a few centimetres, clad in a simple white sundress and with short brown hair framing a completely neutral face. Blanc was the epitome of calm when their gazes met, red silently asking blue for help.

"Oh look, its Blanc!"

And there the neutral expression went, replaced by a frown while both of Noire's tormentors turned their attention to the brunette. Her own gaze became apologeptic now and they shared a moment of mutual understanding. Not that it stopped the petite girl from treading ever closer, her grimace only a little push away from actually taking over the girlish features.

And then the other two were upon her, Vert going for her hug first. She made it a rather normal one though, which may or may not be connected to the fact that two small hands were firmly clutching her hair. The unspoken threat was clear.

After Neptune hugged their last member as well and she noticed once again that she herself was the only one getting tackle-hugged, Noire greeted her with a small wave and a weak smile. "Hey there, Blanc."

"Noire."

Others might only hear the cold voice and assume she was rude, but Noire knew to listen to the missing edge that indicated Blanc was not in a bad mood. With a glance at Neptune and Vert, the taller CPU motioned for the building they stood in front of. "Now that everyone is here, we should go in."

"Great idea! Onwards, ladies!" Vert chuckled while Neptune led them into the restaurant with an almost inappropriate amount of enthusiasm; Blanc only snorted and Noire rolled her eyes again.

The place was rather empty at this time of the day, two hours before school let out and in the middle of the morning shift. It was furnished with bright wood and some leanboxian artworks, the tables sturdy and well-maintained. Noire took in a great many details about the place, from the faint smell of food coming from its kitchen to the fact the windows were arranged so light could never fall directly onto the tables.

After looking around for a moment, the four of them claimed a table at the back wall; none of them really wanted to talk in code because other patrons were listening in, after all.

Neptune gently readjusted her choker while the others checked the menu, the sleek silver metal sitting only slightly loose against her throat. Noire once again wondered just how this trend managed to stay in Planeptune for more than fifty years by now. Vert had a wide variety of comments on the fact basically every citizen wore one of those, be they made of leather, metal or other materials.

It was not particularly important, anyway. Every nation had its quirks.

While they were ordering however, Vert did what she usually did: she leaned forward exactly far enough to allow the waitress a good look into her cleavage, making the poor girl blush and try to turn her eyes away while also futilely attempting to listen properly. In the end, she was forced to ask Vert to repeat herself because she missed half of the order.

Noire just rolled her eyes over the familiar display and idly took notice of Blanc's frown deepening. The neutral lines around her eyes had yet to break, so she was not that angry up until this point. They all knew that she was as prude as her nation. Lowee's goddess had never been comfortable with that kind of thing in public.

But Blanc knew better than to try stopping their companion. It was as futile as attempting to stop Neptune from being hyper. The purplette on her part got going the moment the waitress was out of hearing range: "I've got another invitation for a marriage last week. And this time I'm actually going."

The others shared smiles over that. Those poor souls that thought it was a good joke to formally invite their goddess to such things were always in for a surprise with Neptune. Nonetheless, Noire already saw another headache coming. "Are you sure you can spare the time?"

She did that whenever she could, as Noire well knew. She herself had no time between all the work she was doing for Lastation, but usually sent a letter apologising about having to turn down such invitations; it was a template she just needed to alter marginally, but still.

"Nah, I'll be getting cake and a lot of baffled faces, that's time well spent." Neptune already had her arms folded and leaned back against the chair, a clear sign she would not argue the matter of her 'time well spent' again. Instead, the purplette changed the topic. "Anyway, how's your story going, Blanc?"

The brunette shrugged while Noire watched her. Blanc had been writing fanfiction and original works for centuries, although she never really got to publish them. No matter when they met, the smaller girl always had something she was working on. Just like Noire always had another outfit to make or weapon to forge.

"I made the mistake of looking at the beginning again. There are inconsistencies that need a major rewrite to edit out, so the whole thing is on hold." And there was the reason nothing she wrote was published. As a perfectionist, Blanc was not content with anything she created so far.

"That does sound like a lot of extra work. What was it you were writing again?" Vert did sound curious, even though all of them remembered well enough what it was. Blanc knew that too, according to her raised eyebrow.

"A battle harem." The look in her eyes dared them to say anything about it, but Noire saw no reason for that; Blanc made it clear she was trying to write a proper story with the concept, not just some throwaway stuff hiding the fanservice like certain anime her nation produced.

Vert just chuckled about their colleague's defensiveness and Noire was tempted to huff again. It was always the same with the teasing bunch. Better change the topic before the table exploded. Thinking of Vert brought her to another question. "Say, how is your next edition going?"

"Hm? Ah, yes." The blonde winked at her, indicating that she noticed what Noire was doing and decided to humour her. It was only half of the truth, though; the black-haired CPU was looking forward to their next session.

"Progress is good, I believe. There are still some balancing issues on supplemental rules I added in after your latest... creation, but with the new releases this month taken into account, I should be done within the next three months."

"You're still hoping that Noire won't find any loopholes to abuse?" Much to her annoyance, that was Blanc's first comment on the matter. It was not her fault if the rules had some obvious flaws she could use to her advantage, even less so if her fellow deity and game master did not catch them beforehand.

At least Vert was fair enough to let her get away with them. Then she fixed them with the next edition. It went like this ever since the ruler of Leanbox took up the hobby of creating tabletop-rulebooks; the other CPUs were always her testing group. After all, nary a human could break a system that a goddess could not break.

"You make it sound as if it was my fault the rules have holes visible all the way from Lastation. That aside, someone has to pick up the slack from Neptune playing whatever."

The purplette was busy sipping from her drink, making Noire realise that those had been brought when she was not paying attention. She focussed on her friends, considering how much one had to read out of their body language and expression to know what they were actually thinking. It was somewhat nice to know them that well, though; few words were needed when they did not want to talk.

"You are the powergamer and I'm the roleplayer, there is no problem with that. We can carry a party of three."

"Now hold on!" Neptune gave them both stern looks while Vert chuckled in the background. The petite girl got up and pointed at Blanc with fake indignation. "My characters are perfectly viable and you know it."

"You played a vampire with a fear of blood," Blanc provided.
"With enough endurance that he never had to feed!"

"Or that blind archer," Noire added with a tiny smile while idly playing with one of her twintails.

"I skilled her on finding enemies on sound!"

"Or..."

::

Their banter was observed from the counter, a gentle gaze resting on the four women from behind an old pair of glasses. The owner of this restaurant counted himself lucky to serve the whole pantheon yet again. This was the second time.

Most of the younger ones would not know to tell them apart from regular customers, even though the spotless skin and overall beauty were a good sign for it.

What tipped him off was a very simple fact, though. The young purplette had been among his customers for the last fourty years, almost ever since he started his business here. She only showed up once or twice a year, but one took notice of such things.

Seeing them talk and joke with each other, he could be content. Even though they were deities, all four of them, they ruled well. One could feel as if nothing was wrong with the world.