John looked at the screen above declaring their loss with disheartened acceptance. The dice had been loaded against them from the start. “I want to complain about you being way too sturdy,” he said to Thana, “but I love that I can be super rough with you in bed without worry, so I won’t.”
“This was a lot of fucking fun for me,” Thana grinned. “Rarely get the challenge.”
“Did watching yourself get beaten up get ya riled up?” Rave wondered.
“The shit? No,” the blood mage answered.
“Was just asking myself, since you’re so massively subby,” the lightbearer clarified.
“There is a giant fucking difference between getting choked into the mattress by someone I can trust and getting beaten to death. If I was turned on by just getting stabbed with knives, I would have some major fucking longing for those nails that were under my skin, you seizure inducing bubble-gum cunt,” Thana laid it down on John’s girlfriend.
“Wow, volatile,” Rave raised her hands in defence. “Was just asking.”
“Yeah… sorry…” Thana’s mood swung over to apologetic muttering. “Just… GET DOWN!”
John didn’t plan to question this, at least not in the moment. As he and everyone else went to the ground he had Gnome, now separated from Salamander again, create a protective wall around them.
He already had an inkling of what was about to happen.
The shockwave of an explosion, coming from the centre of the arena, washed over them. Blue and purple filled the air with arcane might as it unloaded without a medium. The now unhindered sounds of the crowd became a panicked muttering only to be calmed a moment later.
“No reason to worry, dear onlookers, the emergency barriers aren’t even sweating,” Jeff announced. “But the hell just happened?”
“It seems the Mirror Crystal was not able to handle the stress from its output and went into meltdown,” Dra explained. “The remaining mana must have unloaded just now. What a waste.”
“See, I could totally have overloaded it!” Thana proudly declared as she helped Lydia back on her feet.
“I am not so certain about tha-“ the princess began when Dra cleared his throat.
“Okay, so the Fateweavers just mailed me the data,” the lizardman said, looking at his phone.
“That was quick,” Jeff shouted in surprise, “and why are you getting that juicy data?”
“Because I am actually organized and asked for us to exchange addresses. Anyhow, it seems that there was more than just one reason for the poor crystal to go into meltdown. Number one, however, was that the emulation of Thana was already making it operating over normal capabilities,” Dra reported.
“Why didn’t it just explode in the fight then?” Jeff asked his co-host.
“Apparently it can hold overclocking for a bit. It would have needed repairs after and maybe have reached critical condition even with just that, but the next two factors made the poor thing strain beyond even the overclocking,” came the diligent reply. “Maximillian’s and Alexej’s power combination and the Gamer’s sheer amount of summons tipped over the edge into complete disrepair. It was lucky it lasted that long.”
“Well, you heard it folks, don’t try copying super-powerful fighters, the devices cannot handle it!” the hyped announcer nodded to himself.
“…Yes, whatever. Speaking of the Gamer, I would like to highlight one scene here,” Dra said. “Oh, yes, there was something really interesting in that fight, let’s give it a post-game analysis,” Jeff agreed.
The screen switched to a slow-motion replay of Gnome and Salamander fusing. “Folks in the stadium and at home, you may not know this, but THAT,” Jeff said, “should be impossible.”
Dra opened his elongated maw to answer, but another voice echoed from the head of the colosseum instead.
“It should be, indeed,” Romulus’ voice reached even to the outer ranks of the audience without the need of a microphone. A camera hastened to zoom in on the emperor, who was sitting on his throne with the usual godlike earnestness and dignity. “Do you have anything to say on the matter, John Newman?”
“Nope,” John answered, clicking the question away. ‘Let’s hope he won’t ask anymore. I don’t want to speak in front of so many people for too long… what if I breathe too loudly? Can they hear that?’ he thought to himself, more curious than panicked.
Luckily, he had been through a lot of nerve-wracking stuff by now, otherwise speaking in front of… millions, potentially, would have probably robbed his last nerve. Currently, he was mildly uncomfortable, but he could mask that pretty well. As long as it was over quickly.
“’Nope?’” that wasn’t Romulus but the golden plated sun goddess at his side. Sol took obvious offence with his tone there. “You will explain yourself to your emperor!”
“He is not my emperor, I am American,” John pointed out, to the shocked grumbles of many, “and I am under no obligation to explain how I can do things you don’t expect me to be able to do, just as you aren’t obligated to explain how you are able to put a translation spell over an entire species.”
The arena was holding its breath following John’s response. The normal onlookers were munching their snacks at the mild drama, and the nobles were at the edge of their seats as someone actually dared to speak to Romulus that way.
“You dare speak that way to Ro-“
“Enough, Sol,” Romulus interrupted his familiar. Despite the refusal to have his question answered, the emperor looked rather amused. “You will deny the world knowledge of how you broke one of the rules of magic?”
“All you need to know is that it is a thing only I can do,” John returned; “Nothing else is of importance to you.”
It was an entirely self-serving argument. Sure, most people wouldn’t learn all about their country’s laws, but that didn’t mean that knowledge shouldn’t have been available. It would have been stupid of John to just give away knowledge for free though.
Much more pressing in this case, however, was that he had no idea how it worked himself. It wasn’t like with his other skills, where he at least got the knowledge of how to do it and how to do it better over time as the skill level increased. No, he was just allowed to do something other people weren’t.
Admitting that in front of the world would have been pretty weird. ‘I have no idea how my powers work! I am just this strong!’ The reactions to that statement would range from ridicule to hatred.
“It seems you value your secrecy,” Romulus said in a judgemental tone.
The Gamer gulped when he felt a slender hand close around his. He looked down to see Rave smiling. ‘Ya got this, tiger,’ her lips silently formed.
“My privacy - I value my privacy,” John corrected. “And you have no right but the right of the strongest to take that away from me.”
The emperor looked down and finally nodded. It was understood that a souring of their relationships meant that he would have to destroy John while he was still in his early stages. “I will accept it as thus. Let the world speculate if it amuses you.”
The buff was removed from John, and this little trial was over. Romulus had decided that they were better off on a neutral stance or that this knowledge wasn’t worth it. Either way, John was free to go.
“You reacted well,” Lydia complimented on their way outside; “Not exactly diplomatic, but you stood your ground.”
“Why thank you, I do fashion myself the leader of an uprising guild with a whole two members,” John said.
“You are the leader of a guild?” Lydia asked. That this was news to her was hardly surprising. Not like John ever mentioned it.
“Yup, he is the leader of Collide,” Rave grinned; “Population: me and him.”
“I see,” the princess was now disinterested, “and here I thought you had some resources hidden from me, but it is just a little club of yours.”
“It’s not just a club,” John told her. “It is a memento of the first three people in the Abyss that were somewhat friendly to me. Two of which I will never see again.”
“Even though we totally wanted to exploit you,” Rave giggled; “Especially Travolta. ‘Can’t let another powerful guy get into the Golden Rose, get to him first, you dumb girl!’ he lectured me.”
John shrugged with a wry smile on his lips, “He was a good guy with bad motives, just like everyone else in his guild.”
“Sounds about right,” Rave grinned.
“…Travolta… he died because of me, right?” Thana suddenly intervened in the light-hearted conversation. Her violet eyes looked at John as he turned around; they had just stepped on a mana street that was carrying them away.
“No and yes,” John answered. “While it was your blood that forced us to kill him as he had fallen into a berserker rage, it wasn’t your fault that he drank it. First and foremost, it was Herman’s fault, then the Bloodfallen’s who distributed your blood like some sort of loyalty token. I don’t think any blame should be put on you.”
“Yeah, pretty much everyone who deserved to pay for that already did,” Rave nodded. “That affair is done and dusted, let’s not dwell on it too much. Ya know, there is a nicer tomorrow.”
Thana gave them a thankful little nod, “Can I join that guild?”
“I don’t know, let’s put it to a vote,” John joked. “All guild members in favour give a sign!” He and his girlfriend’s locked hands raised as one. “With a 100% agreement rate, Thana is now part of Collide,” he announced in a good mood.
“Paths are crossing, worlds colliding, some will rise and some will fall, and we will repeat fighting until we take it all,” Rave added with a grin.
“That was pretty poetic for you, Jane,” the Gamer said, “but that makes us sound like aggressive conquerors or something.”
“Whatevs, I just want to punch people and have it my way,” she laughed. “I will leave the whole thinking stuff through to you.”
“You are a bunch of fucked up ragtag dumbass clitlickers,” Thana said and then burst out laughing.
“Ya know, you will fit right in, ya broken angel.” That comment from Rave caused Thana to stop laughing.
“Can you fucking not? That nickname makes my skin crawl!” the blood mage complained.
“Well, it’s in the name, we collide with people and each other,” the Lightbearer stuck out her pierced tongue. “You getting into the guild means that I get to be extra mean to ya.”
“The shit is that logic? Isn’t a guild some kind of chosen fucking family?” Thana asked.
“Nah, it’s the people I can tolerate to get along with more than the rest,” Rave answered.
“Yeah, don’t look for niceness in this guild,” John supported his girlfriend. “We are going to make your life hell, the best hell ever.”
“I have been through the worst, you two will not even be a fucking challenge!” Thana grinned from ear to ear.
“It is approvable that all of you are in such a good mood, but I have to remind you what is going to happen from here on out,” Lydia chimed back into the conversation. “I need you all to train as hard as you can before your next fights. Tomorrow, John will enter the arena. Afterwards, we will need to speak about who is ready and who is not.” Her blue eyes wandered over the people present; everyone gestured their understanding. “Good, the plan proceeds then,” Lydia said. “We are two points behind now, a surmountable gap. Let us continue in our preparations.”
