“That pizza was nice,” Nia said as they headed out. It was shortly before midnight. Where John would have expected a few of the less patient folks to have already started firing their explosives into the night sky back in Springfield, the only thing that lit up the skies of Rome were the stars. Nothing even indicated that the city would celebrate the turn of the year with the bangs and flashes John was used to.

The idea that they wouldn’t made John feel oddly removed. He had gotten used to much of the Abyss: the ruthlessness, the casual violence, the massive amounts of money, the necessary cruelties and the importance of promises. In many ways it was better than the world of modern society he had left, but today in particular he missed it. The safety of a normal life and the mindless indulgence of a holiday.

His nostalgia was as vast as the unchanged sky.

He shook his head and kept heading for the gate; he had a bonus level to check out. “Why would ya bring up that pizza now?” Rave asked. “We ate it like 4 hours ago.”

“I nevertheless thank you for the appreciation of my cooking,” Aclysia quickly added.

“I just thought I should,” Nia whispered and averted her eyes.

Everyone was with him, every single girl of the mansion was heading out with him. At first Lydia had just said that they (being her, Nia and Rave) should go with him on the off-chance that the Bonus Level was worth a lot of experience. Thana then chimed in that she didn’t want to be bored, therefore she would come with. Nathalia then tagged along as well, not feeling like sleeping.

“First new year since I got my powers, and I spend it doing a Bonus Level,” John said; “How fitting.”

“You two, do not intervene!” Lydia said with a glance at the two over-levelled members of their party. “I do not want to lose upon the reward because of your indulgence of mindless slaughter.”

“How dull,” Nathalia inspected her claws as she breathed in the air of the real world.

Over here John could hear what he had missed in Rome and smell the first hints of gunpowder that would soon permeate the air all throughout the city. He raised an eyebrow as Wisdom of the Inferno suddenly made him very aware of the lighters and matches used in a giant radius around him. His nostalgia for new years was suddenly blown away by the reality that he traded it for magic.

It was a very good trade, all things considered, and the amount of signals he got even before the actual new year rolled around was already annoying. Come the main wave of fireworks, it would be like experiencing radio static right to the soul. He didn’t look forward to that.

“Well, then, let’s see what this does,” John said and created an Instant Dungeon by sacrificing the Key to the Church.

He landed, expectedly, in front of a church or, as a popup further specified, a temple.

“…Please don’t be too annoyed,” John muttered under his breath. He could more than vividly remember the annoying mushroom-man that he had fought. His demise had ultimately led to Gnome’s evolution, but John really could have done without the banter.

Now he was going to face a lord of that or something? He did not look forward to it.

“Okay, it says I have to face it ‘alone’, which means me and my familiars,” John told the rest of his party.

“Well, then my presence here is no longer needed,” Lydia said and raised her hand; “…I cannot leave, Nathalia, would you be so kind as to take us out of here.”

“No, I am interested in seeing how this plays out,” the dragoness was smirking for some unknown reason. “Therefore, I will not force the exit to leave these grounds.”

Lydia sighed, “Just make it quick then, John; I am already 2 hours behind my sleep schedule.”

“I will, I will,” John assured and walked towards the church while Rave and Thana started teasing the princess for the existence of her sleep schedule.

It was quite a tall building, not gargantuan, but impressive nonetheless. A gothic style church made from black and grey granite, wrought iron used to reinforce or decorate wherever necessary. There was an aura of unease settled around the building, and the dark tinged windows certainly didn’t help that expression, neither did the fact that John had to pass a small graveyard to get to the door.

He reached an oaken door, tall in typical church fashion. He pushed against the door, and rusty hinges screamed and moaned as they slowly swung inside. What was revealed was a large hall; rows of pews had been pushed to the sides to make room for a long table.

The braziers on the pillars next to the walls and the candles on-top of the table were the only sources of light in the hall, drenching it in a dim darkness. Even though the table had more than enough seats to accommodate a fair gathering, there was only a single person there.

The silhouette of a man was sitting upon a cobweb covered throne in front of a purple and red rose window. “Ah, a guest has arrived, a John no less,” the lord of the NATEs said. He was swirling a silver chalice in his hand, pausing only to take a sip of whatever was inside. He put it down with a dramatic ‘toc’.“I wonder which one you are?”

He stood up and John felt the being’s eyes rest on him, even though he could not see them.

“An Elementalist? That does not narrow down the list much, so many of you choose to get involved with the elemental powers… but… Aaaah,” Nathanial made an understanding sound and chuckled to himself. “I see, I see, powers work so differently across dimensions that I sometimes need a moment to figure it all out, I apologize. You must be the one to face a spore of my prime corruptor Nateward, aren’t you?”

John had been prepared for whatever he faced to be talkative, but still, this was a bit much. He just decided to nod. “That means your Gaia is that Gaia; oh, I would love to see how your story continues. Sadly, the seal hasn’t been removed in this world, so these occasional visits of our kind into your dungeons seem to be all the contact we will be having.”

“What do you mean, THAT Gaia?” John asked. “Are you telling me there are some that aren’t as hard to deal with?”

“My lips are sealed on further matters, I stand nothing to gain from it. Instead, how about we do THIS!” the lord of the NATEs jumped onto the table. A shadow whip with unexplainable range cracked into John’s direction.

However, he was not so easily surprised anymore, so Aclysia was more than ready to intervene. The whip wrapped around Ashkandi and left them in a power struggle where Nathanial tried to pull the blade from her grasp.

The elementals weren’t about to let this opportunity just pass by and started moving. From Gnome to Siena, they went on the offensive. A barrage of cutting wind and electricity, blades of shadow, bolts of fire and a fist of rock all crashed into the lord. Only Undine stayed behind, equipped to John, who threw out a single Shardbound attack, the purple crystal embedding itself into Nathanial’s shoulder.

“This shadow is laughably weak,” the lord of the NATEs complained as the crystal disappeared. Physically, he looked unharmed, but it was hard to guess the damage done to a creature made from swirling, translucent darkness. At the very least his mildly annoyed tone implied that the attacks had done something.

Then Nathanial suddenly flew towards Aclysia at high speed, as if the whip had suddenly become elastic and he was now using himself as the projectile of a sling. His second weapon, a rapier just as shaded as the rest of him, ripped through the air. Aclysia managed to bring her blade between her head and the tip of the rapier just in time to block.

The impact ripped her backwards, leaving her laying on the floor, after sliding towards the door and colliding with an invisible barrier that kept them inside, with the lord on top of her. The tip of his rapier was making Ashkandi screech as it cut lines into the hardened obsidian blade.

“Ah, you know, the John of my preferred dimension uses the elements too. Unlike you, he has the balls to wear his own sword though,” Nathanial taunted as he continued to pressure the artificial guardian.

“Let her go, you jerk!” Momo warned and assaulted him with fireflies. It was little more than a distraction while a white one actually went for Aclysia, causing her stats to rise by 10%.

However, not even that helped her situation. “I mean it!” The support screamed and attempted a flying kick out of sheer desperation; John was also closing in. Momo’s attack was absolutely unsuccessful; Nathanial just used his whip, wrapping it around her outstretched leg, and slammed her into a pillar.

“Let me teach you some loss, boy!” Nathanial announced, and with a terrible crack, Ashkandi broke in half. The rapier was now heading straight downwards and penetrated Aclysia’s head. There was a smile on the lord’s lips for a moment, that much John was certain of, then the artificial guardian punched him in the stomach, sending him flying off her and crashing into the long table.

“That blade was a present from John,” Aclysia announced in a dangerously calm tone; she fixed her decidedly pissed gaze on the pile of wooden splinters.

“Was it now?” Nathanial said, sitting up and rolling his neck- “Good, that means I at least destroyed something of worth. Nateward should have mentioned who of you was the golem in detail, but he was too busy complaining about a certain earth elemental…” Gnome jumped at the lord and tried to get a punch in at the seemingly defenceless Nathanial but was instead grabbed by the throat in a seemingly nonchalant way; “…and her annoying strategies.”

“Most annoying strategies these days come from me, I am afraid,” John said, trying to inch closer. This guy was clearly bad enough news to warrant using his secret weapon. He would need to get a bit closer for that.

“That so?” Nathanial looked at the stone elemental in his grasp. “A remarkably cute elemental you got there. As a matter of fact, all of these seem rather attractive. You Gamers, so seldomly do you tread the same path, but every time, you seek out whatever little love you can get.”

Nobody dared to attack while the lord of the NATEs held Gnome hostage. It wasn’t that they couldn’t just do it, Gnome would survive as long as her contract with John persisted, but that they would rather have her skip the experience. Therefore, they were looking for a window to open.

And it came. “Tell you what, boy,” Nathanial said in an openly condescending way, “I like your sense of style. Us suited fellows need to stick together. Prostrate yourself before me and swear to break the seal upon us in this realm and I will let your elemental go.”

“Sure,” John said and stepped closer.

Nathanial raised an eyebrow, “That was easy. Ah, I see, you are just closing the distance.” John stopped walking as Nathanial closed his grasp on Gnome, his weapons had vanished. The fact that she couldn’t just go incorporeal was frustrating, but John had encountered these cases before. The Touch of the Abyss attribute, seemingly everything in the upper echelons possessed it.

Not exactly unexpected as it was the most effective counter to phantasmal enemies there could be and fairly easy to acquire as well. Still, it was to John’s disadvantage right now.

‘Well, it matters not anymore, I am in range,’ John thought and apologetically shrugged; “Sorry, but I do like winning.” At that moment, Jack, the speed of his flight boosted by burning mana, launched at Nathanial from behind, a shard between his talons.

“What a measly attempt!” Nathanial laughed and just manifested his whip again, lashing at the bird. That little distraction was all John needed to raise his left hand, the one clad in Purgatory, and point its palm at Nathanial.

Arcane and shadow energy ripped into existence. They ate away at a mana pool that was saved inside Purgatory and manifested a Mana Blade over six metres in length, infused with the dark power of Siena. It seared against the lord’s magical resistance, but with his one hand occupied holding Gnome and the other attacking Jack, the overcharged attack hit him in the soft side of his stomach, between ribs and hips, not a place famed for any kind of defences, physical or magical.

The blade successfully ripped through Nathanial, cutting his silhouette into two halves which fell to the floor and then vanished.

Then it was over. The shadow-element imbued into the attack reduced its already short lifespan to a mere third of its duration. Just one second, that was the whole window the attack gave him. John lowered his hand with a smirk. “Secret kept and boss beaten!” John exclaimed.

“That so?” Nathanial shouted from his seat at the end of the now destroyed table.

“But how?”

“This is a mere shadow, John; I can spawn as many as I please within the boundaries of Gaia’s rules,” the lord of the NATEs reached for the chalice he had put down earlier. His hand sank straight through. “Which she seems to have changed now that you ‘beat’ me,” he sighed. “Well then, I suppose you earned yourself a reward, as was my understanding with your Gaia when she first asked me to fight you at some point. Let’s see…two gifts…”

He snapped his fingers, and from nowhere a blade appeared. It was a katana flawlessly hammered from pure white metal, the kind John previously had seen only in alloys. The guard, a square of the same material (as a quick touch indicated), was painted black while the grip was an outstanding piece in how perfectly standardized it looked.

It must have taken whoever made it untold amounts of days to reach a level in leather wrapping to get the way the stripes crossed over the black wood at the centre just right. The grip then ended in a simple pommel with a streak of red hair decorating it by hanging off.

John had no idea what half of these attributes did, but it looked like it would be more than a perfect replacement for the blade Nathanial had destroyed earlier. “You better take good care of this, parts of it are very important to me,” the lord warned. “You will receive my second gift once you rejoin your little group. Likelihood has it that this will be our only meeting. Pray for that to be the case, boy.”

With that the lord disappeared and left John to do nothing but what he recommended. After the Gamer picked up the sword (he would check the attributes in a bit), he turned around. To his surprise, the first person to get in his way was Nathalia.

The dragoness wrestled the sword from his hand. “I leave him with a strand of my hair and he uses it as decoration for a blade?!” she growled, inspecting it.

“What do you mean you left him with… oh my god, you fucked that guy?” 

“Your surprise is uncalled for John, the amount of dick I had before you is as vast as my patience with your ceaseless shenanigans,” Nathalia stated.

John did indeed know that, but he really did not appreciate being reminded of it. He was tempted to have that talk at that moment, but he still did not know how to breach the topic without potentially annoying her so much she packed up and left again. At least he had an eye on her at the moment – and her to himself.

He met Nathalia’s gaze and, although nothing was said, John knew she caught his inner turmoil.

“So, you had about four fucking dicks in your life?” Thana asked from the side-lines.

Nathalia just bared her sharp teeth at the much smaller blood mage. “Surrounded by nuisances just because I listened to this heart of mine for once, better make it worth it, John,” she complained and handed the blade back.

“Is that all you got?” Rave asked.

“Don’t dismiss it,” Lydia said, now inspecting the weapon herself; “It’s pure mithril, even Romulus would be envious of such a weapon. As a matter of fact, I am envious of that weapon, and if you weren’t repaying me otherwise, I would gladly accept it in full for your debt to me.”

“Well, too bad for you that I am punching your enemies instead,” John said. “But no, Jane, he said there would be something else.” At that moment the sky around them flared and then…

Fireworks bloomed like flowers all around them. Near, far, they filled the sky, layers upon layers of rockets reaching the sky and exploding in a beautiful display. Red, white, blue and green fires lightened up the sky in overlapping intervals.

It wasn’t just one sky they were looking at, it was an untold amount. Nathanial had used his powers to weaken the border between dimensions just so slightly that visual elements could break through. For just one minute, they were greeted with the stunning visual experience of thousands of new years all across different worlds, all without the stench of gunpowder or the sound of explosives filling the air with annoyances.

It was just them, John and his girls, looking up in silence and awe, moved at the display of a flower-filled summer plane in the starlit winter skies. “Happy New Year,” John smiled at his loves as the barriers re-arranged themselves.

“Happy New Year,” Rave laughed and fell around him.

“A successful New Year to us,” Lydia nodded.

“These oxidations in the sky sure look beautiful, wouldn’t mind seeing them again with you guys next year,” Momo couldn’t help herself but ruin it with science.

“I will enjoy gazing at whatever Master wants for another year,” Aclysia took his hand.

“A year with more fire!” Salamander pumped her fist.

“U-uhm, a-a year with great goals!” Gnome added.

“With lots and lots and lots and lots and lots…”

“With harmony,” Undine interrupted her sister, who kept palavering in the background.

“Where we might learn to get along,” Siena said, widening her eyes when she realized how sincere she was.

“Your mortal years mean little to me… although… perhaps…,” Nathalia mumbled something quietly to herself..

“...and lots and lots and lots of gummy bears and love!” Sylph finally finished what she wanted to say.

Thana stared at the sky. “These explosives give me half a fucking panic attack,” she muttered, “but they sure are beautiful.” She raised her hand up to the sky as if she could catch the fading sparks and capture the moment forever. “I wish us all a happy New Year in which I learn not to be a constant motherfucking-annoying-piss-off danger to you all,” Thana said and looked at them all with apologetic eyes.

“We will manage,” John promised and pulled his phone out of his inventory. He was just looking at the clock out of habit, he knew it was way too late. “Let’s go get some sleep, tomorrow is the last day of the break.”

“You mean today,” Momo pointed out.

“Nah,” John’s phone always needed a bit to reconnect to the internet and set the clock correctly after being in his inventory. He showed the wrong display to her. “Says here it’s four minutes to midnight.”

Momo rolled her eyes, then they all went to sleep.