Sometimes I wonder about the stars. There's a section in the Maid School's library that always intrigued me when I challenged myself to read every single book there, the Otherworld section. It was filled to the brim with books written by Otherworlders; in them, they detailed many studies from their world. I couldn't help but feel awe when I read about… I don't remember what I read or where I was going with this. Eh, whatever. 

I guess I'll just ramble about what's happening. Currently, we're having dinner. What's for dinner? Potions. Yeah… turns out everyone in this group sucks at packing for long adventurers, which is weird when you consider the fact that two of us are part of the Adventurer's Guild, one of us is a notorious wanderer, and one of us was trained about adventuring at the Maid School. Only Myka and Lina have an excuse for being bad, and even then, Lina should've read about it somewhere, and Myka… she definitely forgot on purpose.

Lina stood up, clearly intending to do another of what she calls a 'Rousing Speech', "As the de facto leader of our little group," Before she could continue, she was cut off by Merry.

"Who died and made you leader?" 

"Merida." The table went silent beside Myka, who was busy chugging down her potion. "Just kidding. Merida ain't dead… although we could kill her when we come across her. But enough about her. She's not even relevant right now! Instead, I want to talk about something important that'll define our journey, our character development, and maybe even our romances."

"Mmm… romance."

"Except for you, Maddy. I sure as hell hope you don't get any romantic developments."

"Jealous?"

"Yes. Incredibly jealous. There isn't enough jealousy in my blood to make me want to get together with anyone in this group that isn't you, Maddy… and maybe sis… actually, scratch that, that's just me seeing too much hentai."

"I, too, have seen too much hentai." Myka chimed in, but her remark was ignored entirely by Lina.

"As I said, before we got off-track, there's something important."

"What is it, dear leader?" Mel wasn't even hiding the apathy. That's hot. "No, it isn't, Madeleine."

"Our goals! We need a reason for this journey, some sort of guiding narrative or some shit, so we all need goals. Now, obviously, Madeleine's goal of looking into the eyes of all 999 Sacred Power holders in the world is the main goal."

"Why is that the main goal? Why couldn't it be mine or Mimi's?" Asked Merry.

"Nyaa~"

"Because of two reasons. One: Hers will take the longest and is the hardest goal, so we'll need to put the most focus on it to see it through, and two: She's the main character."

"I do not understand the second point, but I will admit the first point has somewhat convinced me. Very well, let Madeleine's goal be the focus."

"Good enough reason for me."

"I didn't ask for your opinion, Myka."

"This is the part where I reply with a comment that seems like it's building up our hate-love relationship, but the truth is that the punchline is that we will never get together."

"Fuck you." These… umm… moments of banter between Myka and Lina were weird, even by my standards, but… I have no idea what to say to them.

"Get back on topic before Mimi here goes to sleep."

"Fine, fine. Let's go my alphabetical order, excluding Maddy, and we'll say our goals. Which means Melanie goes first. Hit the stage, sis."

"Umm… my goal is…." Mel thought for a minute, staring at the table but glancing at me every few seconds. "A wedding, I guess."

"Wow… sappy. Fuck you, sis." Lina suddenly stood up, putting her foot on the table. "Let me tell you a real goal! I want to have an orgy with y'all at some point!"

"Ignoring that vulgar goal, I believe it is my turn." Merry let out a little cough, clearing her throat. "My wish is to one day become the Demon Lord of Demon Lords. All demons will kneel before me."

"Very heroic goal, Merry Berry. Next up should be Mimi. Hit us with your goal!"

"Nyaa~"

"I'm tired of this running gag. Why is she even talking like that?"

"I used my reality warping powers on her."

"You don't have reality warping powers, Myka. Also, fuck you. Also also, you're next."

"My goal is to destroy the world."

"Guys… are we the bad guys?"

"Yes, yes you are." Wait… that's not a voice I recognised. We all turned to the new face on the table only to see there wasn't a new face on the table. It was just a raven. "To think I'd find so many parties involved with the world's instability."

"So my goal is near completion!" Myka proudly stood up, pointing somewhere. "Suck it, stupid Pinstripe Suit!"

"Care to elaborate, raven?"

"I'll humour you lot. Merry Deimos, you act as a connection to Hell, which isn't natively connected to Mendass, causing some dimensional instability. Melina Milton and Melanie Arcus, due to your contradictory existence as Side Characters with main roles, you are causing some narrative instability. Myka Jaspers, your shenanigans have caused instability in the spacetime continuum. Lastly, Madeleine. You just cause instability. The only case worse than you is Sally Cordozar, who holds Entropy."

"Hmph. I always knew my connection to the demons was a curse upon the world."

"Hey, sis, we're some metanarrative bullshit!"

"I cannot tell if you're using the term correctly half the time you say it."

"The world is closer to destruction. Beautiful."

"Instability is my middle name, next to inconsistency and incoherent."

"Nyaa~"

"Good question, Mille Migans. With my Sacred Power, I prevent the world's destruction. I was hoping approaching those contributing to it would help, but unfortunately, it did not. A shame, but I did see it coming. Before I leave, please look into my eyes, Madeleine."

"Aye aye, crow!" And so I looked into the bird's eyes.

Hourglass You can delay things by an hour. Side Note: It glows with power.

"Well then, I shall depart. I wish you failure on your journeys." And so the raven flew off.

"What a prude, am I right?" We all turned to the new voice to see something similar to my Shadow Clones. A being that looked like they were made out of shadow, although it was dressed in quite snappy clothing and also had a huge grin plastered across its face.

"A cool fedora and a nice pair of tits. Want to join my orgy group?"

"No."

"Ignore the vulgar one's advances. Tell us, who are you?"

"That's a better question. Thanks, Summoner." The stranger stood up, dramatically posing. "I go by many titles: The Darkness, The Devil's Favourite Avatar, Daughter of the God of Gods, Hero of Nisaty, Backstabbing Bitch, but you guys can call me by the tile denizens of this world… the Creator!"

We all gasped at the sudden reveal before Mel spoke up. "Why is the Creator here with a random group of people?"

"Easy," She pointed at me, "Your Shadow Clone fucked up my book, the people around you are people who were not supposed to be part of groups, and lastly, you kidnapped my fucking daughter!"

Oh yeah… I forgot about that.

---

Character profile: The Preventer

Sacred power: Hourglass

Favourite hour: Zeroth hour

Description: The preventer of Mendass' destruction. There's not much to him. He's just a raven who has to keep delaying Mendass' destruction. He's been at this job for nearly a thousand years. Sure, the Main Group have been the main cause as of recently, but the truth is that Mendass has been unstable for its entire history.

Chapter namesake: One More Hour by Tame Impala