Overheat

For we are many

Execute Program 25-RAD

"Something about this is intensely amusing." Vert sat quite inelegantly on a grassy slope, her head turned far to the right, eyes nailed to something in the far distance.

"Sadist." Blanc sat next to her, about a step further up the slope, legs crossed and leaned back, using her arms to support herself on the ground. "We should be helping them. We really should be helping them."

Both of them slowly turned their head towards the center, a dust cloud approaching in the distance. "Here they come." Vert's lips curled a little, and glanced at Blanc for a moment. "Want to bet how many more turns this is gonna take? I'll bet you a Hydra Blood Ocean special pudding."

"Neptune ate all of them already." Blanc shot down Vert's proposal and narrowed her eyes, focusing on the dust cloud.

It was actually an enormous herd of monsters – classified such by the Tamer Union and Guild as of a few days ago. Splitting the world's non-human species into monsters and animals had been a job long in the works. But that trivia aside, what was going on currently was Zelena's level 99 trial quest. Which to the amusement of everyone was held outside, which really took off the pressure. There were two tasks. Herd up a hundred golden Bokochos and make the grand ruler of the monster kingdom appear – The Divine Bokocho; then ride it.

So far Zelena had made the beast appear twice and sat on it twice – both times ended with her flying high through the air. Covered in grass blemishes and dirt, she rose up again and again. It was quite a chore to herd up all the Bokochos to begin with, because they liked to just run off at the slightest mistake. And Zelena proved herself to have a relatively short temper when she felt wronged by a game. And oh she felt wronged!

The herd rushed past and Zelena's angry shouting and cursing could be heard – with Chika yelling from behind for her to calm down, Neptune just laughing her heart out and Moru, the short and tanned girl from Makers, silently accompanying them to help out.

Vert and Blanc were not alone at the slope. Mina was there as well, reading a novel that had come out just the other day – the printing presses were really running now. Kei was not there however, she was occupied otherwise; helping out Uni with her trial. The rest of the guild was off, doing their own things on their own time. Vert had relaxed things a bit now that they were basically all set up with every class at 99.

"You enjoy seeing her squirm and fail, Lady Vert." Mina didn't even need to look up from her book to know this. "As the guild leader you shouldn't indulge too much in that."

"Come on, she nearly got me killed a few times, stole my nation, stole Ram from Lowee, and so on! I'm allowed a bit of schadenfreude!"

"Sadist," Blanc reiterated. "And I knew it. You're holding a grudge."

"Not a grudge! But it's nice to see her usual haughty face all annoyed!"

I wonder if she realizes that she has the same face as Zelena, Blanc and Mina both thought. Vert received no spoken answer so she started to pout and focus back on Zelena – who was staring down the much larger than average, completely white giant Bokocho.

She was in the middle of a wild rodeo, hanging on as if her life depended on it, when the attention of her audience was redirected elsewhere. Dengekiko and Famitsu, Denko and Mitsu, had nearly fallen over each other racing towards their slave driver of a leader.

"What's got you two so worked up?" Vert had barely just asked this when both girls started talking over each other with enough excitement and half finished sentences that the result was completely incomprehensible gibberish. Vert just watched that unfold with a blissful smile on her face. It was just like a scene out of the kind of anime that she liked the most. She was literally living an anime right now.

Blanc was a lot less happy about the situation. "Both of you shut the hell up! One of you talk! Mitsu, you're less prone to ridiculous exaggeration so you go!" Contradicting herself in just one order, Blanc ignored the really annoyed pout that Denko was using to puff up her face.

"The Shen Yuan guild and the Radical Dreamers guild had a difference of opinion that escalated into a full fight in the middle of the grand market. There are over a hundred injured and about a dozen severely injured bystanders. Most of the guild members died in the fight and were returned to their save point but the fighting didn't stop there. They took it to the business distinct next and their fight blew up the Magic Archer union. There is just a huge mess and everyone is calling for us to step in and put an end to their fighting before it gets worse."

Vert let out a prolonged and exhausting groan that only someone whom has ruled a nation would truly understand the depth of. "What was their fight about?"

"I don't know that much. Everyone I asked said they don't know, that they only saw the fighting." Mitsu didn't really like bringing news like this up.

Mina, upon hearing that the Magic Archer union had been blown up, joined the conversation. "How furious is the union?"

"They already got the Knight and Paladin unions involved to contain the two guilds, but they want someone to really put them in their place." Denko refused to stay quiet any longer and took over informing.

"This is not a world under the same, our, authoritarian rule as our old one. We are not its absolute rulers. Famitsu, reach out to the Sage's union and have them put economic pressure on the guilds. No matter what their fight is about, if everyone in the business of service, selling and buying goods is threatening to blacklist the entire guild from their shops, it will have far more impact than our guild stepping in and killing them all so they can cool off at the sanctuary. Dengekiko, talk to the Geomancer union and have them temporarily ban both guilds from all travel networks and service stations that are run by the network. Both of you, see if you can't get the Bishop and Saint unions to do the same. It will be like the wrath of ten worlds is coming down on them."

Both Mitsu and Denko were impressed with her leader's wisdom – they had thought about similar measures themselves but they didn't think to have the whole union come down on the disturbance. "Aye ma'am!" Both of them ran off until Mitsu remembered she was the one that had to open a portal back to town.

"Was this for the best?" Mina probed Vert's faith in her decision to use economic and social pressure to make the two guilds cave in.

"Fighting them would just redirect their aggression towards us. But they can't be angry at the whole world for long. I would stop and think about my anger really hard if the alternative was being banned from just about every establishment in the world. Then once Sage and Geomancer unions have you on their blacklist, the other Priest and Mage class unions aren't far behind." Vert looked a bit smug as she turned to Mina. "You're underestimating me!"

"Very good. I would have objected to a suppression by force."

"By objecting she means she'd have talked your ear off until it bleeds." Blanc was whispering just loudly enough for Mina to hear, intentionally so.

"Lady Blanc, it seems a lecture on the general nature of watching your words is due again." Mina's smile was putting the fear of divine powers into both Blanc and Vert, who took the chance to exchange a glance and jumped up, running away as fast as they could. Within a minute they were in the midst of helping Zelena finally tame that stubborn, oversized chicken.

Elsewhere, in a far off place that could not have been more desolate, were Uni and Kei. For the first time in a long while, the inexperienced goddess and the long-time oracle were all alone together, and for Uni this was more nerve wrecking than the trial itself – which proved to be extremely poorly designed. A shooting gallery that awarded points based on accuracy, speed and weapon choice. The main issue was that, as a game, this might have been fine. The perspective was not first person. The limited point of view paired with the randomization of the target locations among the craggy wasteland were really pushing Uni to the limit of what she could deal with.

After six failed attempts the two of them were just sitting on a vantage point and resting. To be more specific, Uni was moaning and complaining about the trial while Kei was trying to figure out a way to do it through math. But even she was hitting a dead end with that. "Uni."

"What?!" It was almost the rudest form of what one could use to respond to something so simple. "Sorry. I'm just really irritated!"

"With all of this proceeding forward, to a possible escape from this world and a return to ours, have you given any thought to the direction that you want Lastation to take in the future? You are the goddess now, and-"

"I don't want you to misunderstand me, but… I don't think there will be a nation to rule even if I go back. There was just war and more war back there and people are finally happy here."

"Even so, you still have to think about it."

"Co-existence. This is purely something I thought of on my own, so I don't know how well it will work, but… Planeptune has great technology that it puts to really shoddy use. With… Nepgear's help I can propel Lastation's technology forward and we can sell our adapted research to Lowee and Leanbox. Rather than just Lastation being a country of advanced hardware I want us to be the forerunner in all matters technology. We have the brightest minds, but we are not suited to being the risk takers. That's why I want a positive relationship with Planeptune. Lowee and Leanbox are no doubt going to be cooperating with each other to some degree so I want us to be on at least speaking terms with them at all times. Planeptune's declining economy is something we can fix through our own industry, which should equalize all four nations on the economic level."

"I'm honestly impressed you thought about it this much."

"I-I can't rely on Noire forever! I wanted to show everyone that I can be just as reliable as she is!" Uni's blushing face was a great indication for just how hard she had worked at this and how embarrassed she was about how hard she had worked.

If we talk simply about ruling a nation, you are already her equal, Uni. But you're like a miniature version of your sister when it comes to your feelings and how easily your pride is hurt. "I see that I have nothing to worry about should we go back. Has Nepgear already agreed to be in union with you, then?"

"U-U-U-U- Who said anything about that!?" Uni's remaining composure was shot dead on the spot by the U word.

"I see we still have some issues to iron out." Kei got up and dusted off her class uniform clothes. "Shall we try again? I will remain here and observe the appearance of the targets in hope to discern a pattern."

"This has got to be the worst trial out of all of them."

Everyone probably thinks that about their trial. I know I certainly did.

One extremely lousy attempt behind her, Uni was just leveling a few meters around her into the ground in anger. "How does this even- there was no way for me to- arg!" Being foiled by randomness and bad design was something Uni could not deal with.

Seeing her act out her anger like that was, surprisingly, a relief to Kei. Noire used to keep it all together in front of people and then secretly wallow in any negative feelings. It's good if she can express herself freely enough to take it out on the environment. I need to make sure to prepare some kind of basement room for her to blow off stress. But really, how are we going to do this? We already know it just kicks me out if I attack any of the targets. Perhaps another gunner will be eligible for helping? What was the name of that Makers gunner again? The tall, mature woman with green hair… Capcom? I think that's it."Uni, I believe we should contact another gunner to see if the trial allows for cooperation between your own class."

"Sure. Sure. Anything but another run on my own." Uni had a surprisingly low tolerance for unfair challenges. Noire liked RPGs, especially tactical ones, but she was more of a skill-before-grind person with shooters and such.

While these two trials were going on, other girls from the guild were taking it very easy.

Thanks to the efforts of the Geomancer guild, a new area had been added to the world, so to speak. It was a theory they had put to the test – could areas beyond the physical realm of the existing world be accessed by manually changing the terrain little by little? Like a construction and development project in the real world. And the answer had been a resounding yes. After a combined eleven thousand hours, spread across roughly two hundred Geomancers and about three weeks time, they had split a cliff and created a new road to a beach area. Within days the monster spawning locations were under lock down by the Sorceress and Knight guilds, creating a safe environment – other than the underwater dungeon that was discovered by a particularly nosy Manipulator.

On this beach, where the sun was blasting at full force, where the premium soft and white sand was always warm but never too hot, where space itself came at a premium thanks to countless visitors and lack of a proper bathing beach anywhere else in the world – there were the four sisters of Lowee and Leanbox, together with Peashy, Plutia and Rei.

Only the rich and powerful could afford swimsuits at this point in time – the handicraft workers were pulling ridiculous hours to satisfy demand but demand far exceeded supply. With no bathing beach previously accessible, there had been no need to produce swimsuits. And due to the lack of mass production or factories, everything was done by hand. A swimsuit went for almost the same prize as level sixty armor, which could buy you thousands and thousands of meals or pay your rent for a few months or years.

With that being the case, there was a lot of improvisation – t-shirts, skimpy class clothing, or outright nakedness if you were bold enough to do that. Of course, the Celestia girls were all rich enough to actually afford proper swimwear.

Out of the four sisters, to the surprise of everyone, Ram was the first one to drop dead on her towel, face down, from exhaustion. "I… didn't think having a bigger body would use up this much energy..." She felt like she had fought a boss for hours.

Ram wore a stylish mixture of one-piece and bikini that was too full of holes for a one-piece but not a two-piece of any kind either. It showed a lot of skin on her back and on her sides, but not much in the front, other than a cleavage cut that didn't ruin the decency of the front.

Rom was sitting by her sister's side and doing a number puzzle, legs drawn in towards her chest, her feet and toes lightly wiggling on the towel she sat on. She wasn't surprised at all that Ram was exhausted already – she had gone off like a rocket and never slowed down. Rom's swimsuit was much more in line with what she owned back home, a cutesy pink one-piece with frills at the rim around the hips and over the chest.

Natal was there as well, wearing what was basically a green and yellow version of Rom's swimsuit. But unlike her sister from Lowee, she was just taking it easy and sunbathing after applying a whole lot of sun screen – at least sun screen was something that had been readily available thanks to a desert region being well hunted and explored.

Windy was the only one of the four that wasn't back there with them, instead still running wild in the water with the three older girls. Emulating her oldest sister a little, Windy went for a not quite skimpy but certainly curve flattering bikini, in the same colors as Natal.

Plutia, currently carrying Rei on her shoulders and staggering back and forth, had tied up her hair into a large ponytail that was soaking wet and like a sticky whip whenever she shook her head. Despite her looks she went for a rather plain purple-with-white-dots one-piece that Peashy had objected to and even Rei found hard to compliment.

Peashy, who was below Windy and carrying the Lowee candidate on her shoulders – it was still hard for everyone to remember that Windy and Rom were Lowee candidates while Ram and Natal belonged to Leanbox – had gone with a very simplistic swimsuit version of a sports bra and girl trunks. It was so fitting given her disposition that nobody really managed much of a comment.

The last of the four, Rei, was riding on Plutia's shoulders and grappling with Windy, trying to throw her off without being thrown off – so far they were zero for eight in that and she had no optimism left for ever beating that brute-and-energetic combo that was completely unfair. Her swimsuit was the only one that was rather complex, featuring a lot of crossed strings in front and the back and also showing off significant cleavage – which really made her embarrassed. This was something that Plutia had chosen for her, against her, quiet, protests.

A loud splashing noise and the Plutia-Rei combo went swimming, literally so. Windy pinched her nose, let herself fall backward and came up in an instant after going under. "I think I'm done. Unless we're gonna switch up teams."

"My shoulders are killing me, no thanks." Peashy stretched a little and saw Plutia float towards her on her back. "Ploot, I told you that you two are not gonna beat us. I'm gonna turn into a dried raisin if we stay in the water any longer so how about we go get something to eat."

"Sure~." Plutia seemed perfectly amused with herself despite losing every single match.

"You sure your shoulders aren't killing you because of those huge melons?" Windy reached around Peashy from behind, groping her breasts for just a second – Peashy threw herself backwards and pushed Windy underwater in an instant. Coughing and with water gone up her nose, Windy came up and looked kinda smug. "I guess that's a yes?"

"You Leanbox people are all the same. Boobs is the only thing you ever think about." Peashy had never really felt self-conscious of her large bust, not until she met Windy.

"Too bad I'm from Lowee though." This made her look even more smug.

"Zip it." Peashy felt strangely annoyed by that girl. I've had people reduce me to just my tits before, countless times even, so what is it about her that makes it sting so much? Is it because she is doing it in front of Ploot? Or because Ploot is still clinging to that dumbass woman?

Despite their misgivings about her behavior, Windy didn't meet any resistance in going with them. There were no stalls, yet, at the beach and the unions were almost in a war-like state over who got the best plots to put down their business, but there were independent merchants walking around with carts and such.

"Crepes." "Ice." "Crepes!" "Ice~!"

While Plutia and Peashy were arguing over what to get, Windy dragged Rei a little to the side. There was almost no opportunity to talk to her alone since Plutia clung to her like a flea. "Spill it, what's the deal with the three of you. It's killing me inside to not know." Windy had discovered that she loved romantic gossip. Gossiping about Vert and Blanc had become kinda stale, not to mention that Ram and Rom were kind of terrible at talking about this sort of stuff. Ram had the body of a teenager but her mind wasn't really there yet.

"Even if you ask me that… I don't really know what Plu- Ploot is thinking either." Rei wished someone would tell her what the deal was, too. So far it looked like Plutia wanted to have her cake and eat it too. Does that make me the one that is eaten or is kept? What am I even thinking about…

"Did you do it yet?"

"Do it?"

Windy's mouth took the shape of the most sinister of grins. "S-e-x. Did you have sex with Plutia yet?"

Rei's face turned color so quickly that it looked like she had sunbathed for about twelve hours straight, with no sunscreen at all. A moment of incoherent stammering followed, which itself was followed by Windy being hit on the head, not too hard but with gusto. By Peashy.

"Stop trying to pry information out of her, you gossip." Dragging Rei towards her by her arm, Peashy felt strange, protecting the girl she was basically competing with for Ploot's attention.

"Eh? It's not like either of you is gonna tell me!" Windy pouted a little, crossed one leg behind another and put her arms behind her head.

"You nosy gnome. What do you wanna know?"

"Who's on top at night?" Windy looked delighted that apparently she was gonna get info straight from the source.

"Windy~." Plutia's voice carried a certain momentum of danger. "It's not good~ to pry so much~."

"Actually I think I am gonna check how Ram is doing. See you later!" Windy made her exit before Plutia could say anything else. The last thing she wanted was to end up on a summoner's bad side. Or more specifically, on the bad side of someone that had both Peashy and Rei on a leash.

"She does have a point, Ploot. I don't want to get strung along forever like this. Are you actually going to pick one of us or is this gonna continue?" Peashy took the opportunity to find out what exactly was going on with her relationship.

"But...~ I love both of you~. You can't share~?" Plutia wasn't as air headed as everyone thought she was. She was no master planner either, but she had kept both of them close in an attempt to make them like each other enough so that she could keep both of them by her side. She really did want to have her cake and eat it too.

"You're impossible." Peashy dragged Rei a few steps with her and then turned around. "No P-ko or Rei for you until you actually come up with a solution that isn't silly." She didn't even face Rei, just look at her from the side after that. "Come on."

Leaving Plutia amidst the sea of tourists and improv artists, Peashy dragged Rei all the way to a stall that was run by a sorceress and machinist combo that were selling cold beer – which went at an absolute, ridiculous premium price. "Two Asashi." She didn't like the super dry variation. Receiving two beer, paying from inventory and handing one beer to Rei, Peashy slowly walked off in the general direction that was away from Plutia.

"I can't believe Ploot, stringing us along like that. I was wondering if this was the case but I didn't think she'd admit to it so easily." Hammering down a third of her beer in one go, Peashy let out a halfway suppressed burp. "Open your damn mouth, what do you think?!"

Rei tried to hide her face behind the beer but that wasn't really going to well. "I'm… not against it."

"Huh?"

"To be… honest..." Rei hastily indulged in the beer to get rid of the knot in her throat. "You're kinda… my type."

Peashy reacted differently from what she herself expected. Instead of being embarrassed or angry or even annoyed, she just felt kinda flattered. "Really?"

"Plutia is… she's nice and easy going and carefree. But you're… wild and strong headed and you know exactly what you want."

And there was the annoyance. Not because of why Rei liked her but because of what it meant for Rei to like her. "So. I'm the only one not actually happy with the situation? Wonderful. So I'm the villain now." Drowning her anger in beer was a misadventure – the heat plus beer was a dangerous combination and it went straight to her head.

While this was going on, Windy joined Ram in the ranks of lying flat on your face. After bolting from Plutia's group, she realized just how tired she was. Physically speaking she was a little shorter and a little less busty than Ram was, but that didn't really make much of a difference when it came to stamina.

Spending a good ten minutes just resting, Windy found herself bored really quickly and sat back up. "I kinda wanna do something lewd."

"Pervert." A muffled response from Ram came right away. "Blanc always says perverts are bad people."

"Blanc is very much of a pervert herself, considering how the volume of erotic sounds she and Vert produce at night." Natal delivered this line with such lack of emotion that, for some reason, Ram and Rom both blushed rather intensely.

"Natal is stuck in tiny mode… Ram, let's-" Windy tugged on Ram's swimsuit and immediately got hit by Ram's foot in the face.

"Perverts be gone." She still didn't get up from her face down position.

"I bet you do perverted stuff with Rom!"

"Do not."

"Is that right, Rom?" Windy looked up and saw the older sister try to vanish behind her puzzle magazine. "Busted."

"I don't like you that way." Ram was too exhausted to play along with anything. And just lying there was surprisingly relaxing.

"That's fine, you don't have to. I just want to mess around a little. Touch those-" Making groping movements with her hands, Windy slowly inched closer to Ram.

"She does not want to, Windy. Do I need to tell Vert about this?" Natal took the wind right out of her sister's sails. "If you had something like this in mind you should have brought the necessary items."

"Windy the pervert candidate." This time Ram's comment didn't go unpunished. Pulling an ice stone out of her inventory, she dropped it on Ram's back, who immediately rose like she was stung by a bee. The stone gone in an instant, Ram glared at Windy just in time for the Lowee candidate to move on the ex-Lowee candidate, both of them finding a hard landing on the ground.

Both of them rolling sideways, with Rom quickly jumping out of the way, trying to wrestle each other for control – and in Windy's case, a feel of her step-sister's boobs. Their match found an abrupt, and unsurprising end in a slight dune that a bunch of children had created. Sand got everywhere. Eyes, mouth, ears, nose, cleavage, butt crack. Everywhere. And it was a level of gross that left their spirits heavily dampened.

But being young meant their spirits also recovered very quickly. Strutting towards the ocean, Ram tried to rid herself of the sand that got under her swimsuit without taking it off – limited success was hers.

"You stupid pervert, look what happened! We're like sand people!"

"You're the one that resisted."

"PVP does not mean pervert versus pervert!"

"So you admit you're a pervert too."

"No!"

"You just did!"

"You tricked me!"

"You tricked yourself, Ram."

"Why are you even following me?!"

"Because I got sand everywhere, too."

"Find a different ocean!"

"I refuse."

"Stingy!"

"You're the stingy one! What's the big deal doing some lewd stuff!"

Keeping bickering with each other, the two teenage looking girls – looking, because they were definitely not at that level up there mentally – dove into the ocean eventually and freed themselves of as much sand as possible. Ram took longer, her complicated swimsuit making it harder to get all the sand out.

While the group on the beach was having fun – or dealing with their own issues, the group centered around Vert and Zelena had finally finished their task. And they were in quite a state now. Covered in grass and dirt from head to toe, they all smelled like giant, wet chicken – it was nauseating on multiple levels.

The Divine Bokocho was a one of a kind mount that scaled with the owner's stats from gear and was even able to wear armor itself. Zelena named the beast Trickstar for reasons none of the others were able to discern. Measuring over two meters tall, it took a bit of a jump to get on top of it. It didn't look as impressive as most of the other high-level mounts – it really was just an oversized, purely white chicken at a surface level. But in terms of speed, stamina and combat prowess it made up for the lack of visual impressiveness.

It also came with the special ability to summon as many high-level Bokochos for the guild as needed to traverse any kind of terrain, from the ocean itself to mountains and the thickest forests.

"I need a bath!" Blanc shouted angrily and wiped some large yellow feathers off her clothes. She was still in decent condition, considering the others. After a few failed attempts, Vert and Zelena had been chased around by the wild Bokochos halfway across the plains before their anger wore off. The two of them were dirty like eight year old boys during summer break, with countless yellow feathers stuck everywhere, especially their long blond hair.

"We all do..." Zelena, visibly upset with the entire world, blew a strand of sweaty, oily hair from her forehead. "This has to take the absolute crown of worst trial."

"I'm inclined to agree. I think I am going to have flashbacks to this whenever I eat chicken for the rest of my life." Vert was not happy either. Even with her own trial, the ten thousand floor tower, she hadn't felt this mentally exhausted.

Neptune was off the worst, by far, among the few of them. At one point her own Bokocho – as chasing the birds on foot was impossible – had thrown her off in the middle of a chase; and one of her feet remained stuck on the saddle, dragging her through the dirt and lots of Bokocho feathers for quite a while. Everyone was surprised her HP didn't hit zero. But her mental HP certainly did. No funny quip, no snide comments or jokes. Neptune was just silently lying on her back, in the grass, and looking up at the sky with an empty expression on her face.

Chika had passed out during the trial after being kicked in the face by the Divine Bokocho. She had come to a little while later but kept a safe distance from the violent bird. Right now, for just this moment, her fear of the bird exceeded her desire to be by Zelena's side. It didn't help matters that Zelena smelled very badly of wet bird.

"It appears you have finished." Mina had remained distanced from the spectacle. As an Arcanist, this was very much not her type of thing. "On behalf of Celestia, thank you for helping out, Moru." Thanking the short, tanned girl from Makers in person, Mina took a good look at her patron goddesses. "I suggest I inform Famitsu we need her services and return to the guild ship."

"Zel… what else did the level up spit out? It's not just a giant white chicken, right?" Blanc didn't have the energy to cling to old grudges right now. And she was fairly annoyed. "After this much shit it better be good."

"Yeah… give me moment." Opening up her menu, Zelena looked at her skills. "I see four new skills. They're all pretty useful." There was a very strange noise that closely resembled the sound one made, through gritted teeth, when something was pulled from a wound on their body. "One… one skill makes… all taming actions ten times more likely to succeed. This can be cast on other Tamers as well."

"I will kill the idiot that designed this." Blanc wished she had the strength to stand up and appear threatening.

"I concur." Vert couldn't believe that the designer was such a miser. This meant that the first person to get to this trial was the only one that could not make use of that skill.

It took a little while, during which the group continued to bitch about the design of the trial, before Famitsu showed up. Sages were still the primary way to get around. "Congratulations on finishi-!" Famitsu's words got stuck in her throat when Blanc got up, walked up to her and grabbed her by her collar. "Gate. Now."

"Yes, yes!" Opening the gate in a hurry, Mitsu was glad when the lot of them walked through without a word. Following them, with Mina as the tail light of the group, they all arrived back on the ship. Moru quickly departed for her own guild, the ship was still docked to the side of Celestia, while Vert, Blanc, Zelena, Chika and Neptune immediately headed for the bath.

Mina quickly checked the guild list to see who else was home – only Histoire was there and she was engaged in a long distance conversation with the Mindflayer union about labor conditions. Mindflayers were essential in creating permanent safe zones out in the world. While some areas had fixated spawn points for monsters, most did not and as such the Union had a strict shift system of Mindflayers covering the most important parts. In exchange the Union received what was essentially a public safety tax payment that it distributed to its working members.

Finding no trace of Kei, Mina got comfortable at a table and pulled her novel back out of inventory. With her goddesses in the bath and no particular desire to go out and hunt for stuff, she took it easy for a while.

Kei, however, was anything but taking it easy. "I don't quite comprehend how exactly this is supposed to work."

Uni, who was quite sweaty and worn out at this point, sat back to back with Capcom, a level 86 Gunner from Makers. By their sides were two high level Union Gunners who had joined the party after it turned out that inviting just Capcom was not enough after all. Eight attempts later, MP and spirits were both down in the dumps. "You think this is one of these impossible quests that have to get patch fixed?" Uni was dreading that scenario.

"I don't believe this world is subject to such rigid logic anymore. However, it is strange. There is a just slightly below linear increase of targets compared to the number of Gunners in the party, which means eventually the numbers would even out in requirement to success. But-"

"We have the world's four highest level Gunners right here. If this shit requires any better than that, this is some seriously bad design." Capcom was not nearly as out of breath as Uni was, but mentally speaking she wasn't off much better. Stress and frustration were very real things nowadays.

"I believe we need to re-think our approach. It appeared like a test of skill at first but perhaps this is simply a test of experience." Kei disliked it when the trial itself was giving misdirection. "Perhaps-"

"Yo, Celestia Machinist." Capcom interrupted Kei. "Quick question. I heard about two guilds having a go at each other earlier today. You guys gonna do anything about that?"

"Personally, no. But the unions certainly will." Kei had briefly exchanged messages with Mina about this and was informed about Vert's orders.

"Aw shit."

"Is there an issue with the unions?"

"No, I just lost a bet. I was betting that you guys would show up and beat the shit out of the people disturbing the peace."

"It is not my concern what you and your guild members bet on. Now, about the new approach-"

"Not blaming you, was just curious. Anyway, what's level ninety and up like, Uni?"

"What's it like?" Uni hadn't really paid much attention to the conversation so far.

"Skills and such."

"We don't really get much more after eighty. There is Pulse Shot but it drains MP like crazy so you won't really use it anywhere but against Monster Kings."

"What about grinding?"

"I always went in party. Do you level solo?"

"Not that much of a team player."

"I guess you should max out Flight of Might then."

"Already done. What's your skill build like?"

"Boss slaying. Vert was rather specific about that. She had me explain every single skill to her and how it translates to usage now that we're all here. There were a few changes from when this was a game."

"Your leader is a real addict."

"It worked in our favor though."

"Does someone like that get any work done at all?"

"Mina is probably gonna light a fire under her butt if she doesn't work."

"Who is that again?"

"Our Arcanist. Light blue hair, kinda mellow except when angry. Kei's girlfriend."

"Oh. Her. Hey, Machinist, good taste!"

Kei had sat down and looked through messages while Uni was having some chit-chat. She just raised her hand and waved at the mention of her name.

"She's not much for small talk, is she?"

"Kei is very business orientated."

"Girl, I am glad that your boss doesn't have the best memory. Once upon a time I actually tried to kill her and her girlfriend."

"We all tried to kill each other. But things got better."

"It looks like I'll be out of a job once this is all over."

Uni made an assumption and went from there. "You can't fight monsters?"

"That is a different job. Doesn't pay nearly as well." Capcom paused. "You ever used Mark Shot level 20?"

"I didn't skill that because I'm not responsible for area damage."

"I think I figured out how to do this. Hey, Machinist!"

I wish she'd remember her name already. Uni sighed internally.

But Capcom had been right on the money. The goal of the trial was not to shoot all the targets one by one. It was to destroy all targets so that none were left standing. Shooting them one by one just made more and more appear.

Once they knew this, it was simply a matter of Capcom and one of the other Gunners using a specific skill that targeted a number of enemies – or targets – at the same time and fired a volley of homing shots into the air.

"I… I can't believe this was it." Uni felt her exhaustion grow bigger despite having done nothing in the final attempt. "Thank you for your help."

"What's the spoils?"

"One single target skill, one area skill. Can only use one of them once an hour. And a passive that makes all elemental bullet skills useless."

"Oh come on, I skilled all of them."

"I only have the light elemental one because it leads to Blindshot."

"Well, you always got a Sage and Geomancer with you, right?"

"That's why. Again, thank you for your help."

"In a hurry to get home?"

"I need a bath."

"I want some input on my general build. It's expensive but since you can reset your skills, I'm thinking about doing it once I hit 99, too."

"Would it be okay if I contact you after-"

"If it's a bath you want, I know just the place. There's a new open air hot spring bathhouse that opened up in the Silent Mountains."

Uni knew that she was going to get dragged off anyway, so she went willingly. Parting ways with Kei for the time being and writing a quick message to Nepgear that she'd be late for dinner, probably at least.

The girl in question, Nepgear, was in the middle of free tanking for Makers. This meant she was not in party so no experience was wasted on a level 99 person. Nepgear proved to be far more hardworking than Makers was capable of handling.

"I'm grateful for the help, but… we gotta take a break. We're constantly running under half of max MP and I think Rain and Resta are abut to keel over." Lid, the guild leader of Makers, a woman in her twenties with an eye-patch and a strange fetishism for military gear and cardboard boxes, was calling for a break.

They were currently in the Hollow Obsidian Hole, a high-level dungeon that was full of dark element enemies which Paladins, such as Nepgear, were particularly strong against. "Oh, of course." Nepgear just stopped walking and immediately almost the entirety of Makers plummeted to the ground with exasperated sighs and groans.

"Is this the kind of pace you always go with?" IF was usually a solo grinder, being a Dark Knight and everything, so she really wasn't used to the breakneck pace that Nepgear was going at. "It's kinda… I mean I sorta understand now why Celestia is so far ahead."

"I thought that half as fast as Vert would have me go would be fine. Is it still too fast?" Nepgear was a little oblivious to how other high or moderately high level guilds went about their business.

"Half?! This is half?!" IF fell backwards. "Just thinking about going twice as fast is making me feel kinda sick."

"Sis, you can't sleep here..." The younger of the two Falcom sisters tried to wake up the older one that had just fallen asleep on the spot. The older one was a Knight, while the younger was a Paladin like Nepgear.

Nisa and Estelle, both Paladins as well, staggered towards Nepgear who was literally unfazed by what they had accomplished so far. For her, this was a leisurely tempo. "Lady Nepgear, we were kinda hoping to get some pointers on how to be a better Paladin."

I'm not sure I'm a good teacher. Vert or even Uni could probably explain it better, Is what she thought but didn't say. Not to those two girls that were looking at her with stars and glitter in their eyes.

A little further in the back were Marvel and Cave, both Inquisitors and both kinda reliant on leeching exp from their party. With them was also Cyberconnect2, or just CC, their Magic Trapper.

"I think this would go a lot faster if Capcom didn't bolt." CC glanced at her basically non-existent MP and made sure to remain almost perfectly still to get the biggest rest bonus.

"The boss couldn't exactly say No, I'm not sending my Gunner to help your Gunner get to 99 after we took up Nepgear on her offer to free tank for us." Marvel was kinda happy with this scenario, even though it was really tiring her out. Since she and Cave didn't have much in the way of a role in combat, they were responsible for looting everything. And there was a lot of loot with how many monsters Nepgear was dragging around.

"This is still a many times faster than we would be on our own. It is impressive how well she can tank without even being in our party. As far as I know, Paladins are mostly focused on party coverage and protection." Cave reached out to Marvel and plucked a small piece of vine from her hair.

"Nobody is arguing that. But really, this pace is killing me." CC couldn't help but stretch a little. "I am barely done setting up traps when Nepgear and a horde of monsters big enough to cause panic in a town runs right into them. And then I sit there to recover MP because I am gonna need it the second the monsters are toast."

"I have about sixty pages of items in my inventory." Marvel flipped pages through her inventory. "So many equipment drops. We don't even have time to check who gets what. And did you hear that? This is half the pace they go at in Celestia."

"They are immortals." Cave figured that this went without saying.

"But not in here. It's just skill, effort and experience that separates them from us, or us from the next guild below us." CC was seriously impressed and also a little burned out just thinking about their speed and accomplishments.

"If this party is teaching me anything, it's that everyone should proceed at their own speed. This is not something we can do every day." Marvel didn't even react when someone grabbed her boobs from behind her. "Aren't you tired, Red?"

"Recharging… Boob energy..." Fondling Marvel a little, who showed absolutely no reaction after being too used to this already, Red hummed by herself.

"How are Sango and Aizen doing?" CC looked around for them but it was fairly dark.

"Behind me." Cave tilted a little to the side and revealed both girls in question lying down in exhaustion. They were respectively the Arcanist and the Manipulator of the guild.

"I really hate we don't have a sorceress." CC had been lamenting this for a while now. "We can't ask Celestia's Sorceress for help either since she'd just get all the exp. Even with share mode we wouldn't get nearly as much as now."

"Does either of you know how far Celestia is to finishing everything? I lost track a while ago." Marvel was busy with just the stuff from her own guild.

"If their Tamer and Gunner both reach the maximum level today it will only be their Magic Archer and Cannoneer that still need to ascend."

"That's more scary than it is impressive." CC wasn't shy about voicing her opinions. "What about the Monster Kings?"

"Arcanist, Sorceress and Inquisitor have already fallen." Cave was just a treasure trove of information.

"That's less than I expected." Marvel was getting a little tired of Red clinging to her. "Red, go molest Ryuuka or someone." Shoving her off, Marvel focused back on the conversation. "Do they not have the gear for it?"

"I believe it is a matter of time and strategy." Cave paused for a moment. "It could also be hesitation."

"Hesitation about what?" Red had ignored Marvel's command and just squeezed herself between CC and Cave, a pretty wife to either side.

"Leaving this world." Cave knew that she herself was certainly not leaving. Only dirty jobs and shady work awaited her back home. And she could be with Nisa as much as she wanted in here. There was no risk of her becoming a liability that enemies could exploit.

"I haven't even thought about leaving in at least a week." Marvel sat back a little and looked at the dark rock ceiling. "This world is peaceful. It's everything I wanted. I'm not gonna leave. I don't think LeeFi is gonna go either."

"Why single her out?" The knowing grin was audible in CC's voice.

"Because I'm dating her?" Marvel was not the least bit shy about admitting that.

"Since when?" Red however looked shocked.

"Three days."

"At the celebration party." Cave figured it out. "I did think you and LeeFi were getting kinda hands on at the end."

"Not as much as you and Nisa." Marvel grinned at Cave blushing.

"Okay, everyone! Break is over!" Lid was shouting – not because she was rested but because almost everyone's MP was full.

"I feel like a slave." CC joked and got back on her feet.

"We're not gonna do this every day. We'll be glad for all the exp and loot tomorrow." Marvel was more optimistic than CC was.

In a place that could not have been more different, back at the beach area, Peashy, Plutia and Rei had managed to make up – or rather, Plutia had become really irritated and they made up to appease her mood.

"Pko and Reirei are both my wives~." Plutia looked exceedingly happy with herself.

"I guess so." Peashy still was not that happy about this, but really, what was she going to do? Plutia's desire was crystal clear and going against Plutia had a perfect track record of shooting yourself in the food with a cannon.

"Y-Yay?" Rei's reluctant response came with significant worry that Peashy was going to hold this against her.

"See, Plutia got more than one person she likes that way." Windy was still trying to get Ram to agree to do something lewd with her.

"Once she gets like this she is not going to give up. She will become more and more annoying until-" Natal swatted Windy's hand when she reached out to shut her up. "Until she gets what she wants."

"Shut up, Natal! Go home!" Windy was stubborn to a fault.

"I hope you are aware that Vert will be furious if she finds out you tried to force yourself on Ram. She might kick you out of the guild." Natal's warning had the opposite of the intended effect. Not because of Windy but because of Ram.

"You can't tell Vert." Taking Windy's side, against all sense, in the argument, Ram came to the aid of her step-sister. "You definitely can't tell Vert or Blanc!"

Why is she… I should have known better than to make the situation look dire. There is no way that Vert would kick Windy out, and they should know this, but… Natal was smart but lacked wisdom.

On the other hand, Windy and Ram were a little dumb. "You're not telling on me?"

"I don't like lewd stuff with anyone but Rom." Ram blushed a little, but not nearly as much as Rom did.

"I guess I'll give Natal a transformation item later then… hah..." Sighing in the most obvious disappointed way possible, Windy found herself in luck. Pushed to the ground a little harder than was comfortable by Ram, the Leanbox girl crawled on top, straddling her. "What are you doing?"

"You can touch a little! But I won't do anything!" Ram pouted while saying this. Her logic was incomprehensible to both Natal and Rom.

And Windy's reaction was just as incomprehensible. "No, I know you don't like it, so it's fine."

A bickering argument followed that quickly went nowhere and ended with Windy casually and completely uninterested-like groping Ram for a solid three seconds. After that, both of them pouted and ignored each other.

"I don't understand those two." Natal had moved up to Rom, who was just embarrassed for her sister's behavior right now.

"She's normally a little more mature than this…" Rom thought that Ram had made great strides to being more like an adult lately but this was just hundred steps back.

"Windy too. They bring out the child in each other." Natal was fully aware of the irony that sentence carried, considering she and Rom looked like fourth or fifth graders at best.

"Ram, Rom! Windy, Natal!" A voice was shouting their names in the not so far distance – it belonged to Denko. She and Mitsu were on transport duty. And with how packed the beach was there was no easy way to find someone.

"Looks like our ride is here." Peashy pushed Plutia a little away and turned, looking at the four girls about two meters behind her. "Can one of you – okay, one of you that isn't an idiot, go and tell Denko where we are?"

"I'll go!" Windy and Ram both jumped up at once – both of them feeling like Peashy had specifically asked them to go with her line about not idiots.

About fifteen minutes later, Denko showed up on her own. "There you are. Why didn't you answer?"

"We sent two idiots to go and find you." Peashy was not really all that serious about calling them idiots, but they sure had behaved that way today. Like the beach drained their intelligence or maturity somehow.

A cursory glance told Denko that Ram and Windy were missing. "Lady Vert is calling everyone in. We are going to fight Darkman, Lord of the Bats, tonight. He only spawns after midnight and despawns at dawn so we have a timeline to follow." Denko was talking about the Dark Knight Monster King. "Makers has offered to help out but we are doing this one alone."

"I knew we wouldn't get an actual full twenty-four hours off." Peashy couldn't even be disappointed. She was kinda used to it by now. Even though she hadn't been there from the start, she had quickly grown accustomed to the pace Celestia was going at.

"How are we gonna find the other two?" Denko stood on her toes and tried to find them but couldn't make out anything distinct enough.

"I kept Ram in the party." Rom had known this would happen eventually.

"I did the same with Windy." Natal was taking example from her technically older step-sister.

"Get them over here then. I'll call Micchan." Denko opened up her own party chat to do just that.

"Micchan?" Peashy snorted a little.

"You're one to talk, Pea. Pko." Denko landed a critical hit and successfully shut up the Cannoneer.

=== OVERHEAT ===

After a rather eventful day, everyone was still technically off duty all the way through the evening and early night. Most of the guild went for an extended nap at seven, so they'd be somewhat rested later that night.

A few exceptions to this were the PPR trio that were on deck, enjoying some leisure drinks and some private intimacy time. Peashy had resigned herself to her lot in life. Although the saying went you can't always have what you want it really meant you can never really have what you want but you can compromise for it. And she was doing exactly that.

She was getting to use Plutia's lap as a pillow, one hand hanging off the bench and the other on her stomach, gripping a bottle of Scarlet Fantasy Niner, whatever that was. It tasted kinda nostalgic for some reason. Looking up, Plutia occasionally fed her some bite sized snacks like cracker pieces, raisins or some nuts. Alcoholic beverages snack food basically.

Rei was still in the process of acclimating to the idea of a girlfriend – both having one and being one – and just leaned against Plutia. Plutia's left hand was on Rei's butt while her right kept feeding her two girlfriends.

This by itself was not all that noteworthy – at least not on a ship that was filled to the brim with lesbians. The same scene could have easily taken place with the four Lowee-Leanbox candidates, or between Vert and Blanc. But it was these three that were there and it was them that got to observe the spectacular thing in the night sky – or rather, they would have been able to observe it if they had been sitting on the bench across the table and facing the other direction.

In the darkness of the night, the sky ripped wide open – a giant red hole, like a beast had clawed its way through and the final punch had left the edges of the opening shattered and in tatters. It was unlike any portal, any gateway or any spell that world had ever seen. A hole, a spiraling abyss that led upwards but if observed from far above was perfectly flat – a tunnel in the sky, a tunnel of magic and crimson.

Even more noteworthy than the tunnel itself was what followed. A single red light fell out of it. A tiny, tiny thing. The gate itself was large, colossal, gargantuan even. The people below were aghast at the size and the light it showed. And it lasted for only a handful of seconds. No long enough for any that were not out on the street to witness it. Not long enough for any visual record of it to remain.

But the red light that had emerged from it slowly fell – sinking down into the city. Masses of people rushed towards the source of it, to see what it was. A powerful monster? One of the famous, legendary Celestia guild members that was testing the level 99 skills for the first time? Or something else entirely? Human curiosity was boundless and so were the numbers of people that tried to squeeze themselves into the tiny lot that proved to be the landing spot of the light.

And the city shook. The tiny light, no bigger than the size of a single adult person, burst and released a shock wave that ignored all that was materiel and artificial – only those that lived were affected, shaken and knocked about like feathers in a storm. The city, bustling at all hours of the day, fell silent for five minutes. And when the first people returned, their perception dampened by what had just happened, there was not a trace of the red light that had landed there. Nothing but scorched ground remained there as a sign that something had happened.

With fervor and passion did the people search the city, hunting for the elusive unknown entity that had just knocked out hundreds of thousands of people in an instant for a solid five minutes. From the rooftops to the basements, from the tiniest corners to the great plazas, the entire city was on its feet, searching, searching until they were sure there was nothing to be found.

But there was just one person, just the one, that succeeded where all others failed.

The hair on her skin, arms, legs, neck alike, was standing on end. For some reason she felt that the red haired woman in front of her was dangerous. She alone had withstood the blast that knocked out everyone else. And luck would have had it that she saw the red flash escape over the rooftops at speed so great she was hard pressed to match.

But she knew the area much better than the redhead did. Now the redhead stood to her with her back, facing the cliff that surrounded her on all sides. And slowly she turned. A face hardened by what had to be countless battles, by war that was at least the equal to the ones her pursuer had faced. The red hair split into an odd type of twin tails at the back of her head. A white cloak covered most of her body, revealing black combat boots and black reinforced gloves beneath it.

"How ironic that you would be the one to find me first." Her voice was a little deep and carried distinct authority and strength. She spoke like someone that had nothing to fear from anyone in all of the world.

Her pursuer stepped closer, her black hair briefly swaying in the wind. Her hands were shaking a little. A bad feeling was spreading through her chest and making it to her stomach. The corners of her mouth were drawn downwards. She sensed danger from this woman. A type of danger that she hadn't felt ever since she had entered the underworld. The dangers of war. Of loss beyond all scale and statistic.

"I am Noire, Grand Queen of Pyraba and the Dark World. Who are you? What are you?" She knew better than to make idle threats of violence against someone she knew nothing about.

"Me? I guess there is no me of me in this world then. Or at least I never ended up being important. Or maybe the me of here is just dead. Well, doesn't matter." Throwing her cloak aside she revealed a white uniform beneath which had a large emblem on the right side of her chest. Two spheres, worlds, next to each other on a shield formed background. The letters M.D.S.U.M. were written under it. "I am Tennouboshi Uzume, General Administrator of the Multiple Dimensional Stability Unified Measures Bureau."

=== END OF LINE ===