Chapter 187 – A fluffy Monday 7 – Call back
“Nya!” Rave meowed and pulled her hand out of the stream of water. After eating all the snacks Aclysia had prepared, the techno-lover hadn’t been able to sit still for a long time. When she left, John had gone after her with some reluctance; there was a documentary about the upcoming elections on TV that he would have liked to watch. His girlfriend was a tad more important.
She had run to the bathroom on the upper floor and was now playing with the steady stream of tap water. “Why are you meowing in Japanese now?” John asked as Rave wiggled her index finger from left to right, through the falling water, again and again.
“If I want to meow I’ll do it!” she decidedly exclaimed.
‘I think I understand the drunk comparison now,’ John sighed, eyes closed, and awkwardly scratched the back of his head. When he opened his eyes again, Rave was giving him a wide smile and waddled over to him. “Ya still do that,” she said and kissed his neck.
“Do what?” he asked and pulled her closer.
“That neck scratching thing, really takes me back,” she explained. “You know, all the way back. When you were a weak-ass guy I had to rescue from some rando-gang.”
“To be fair, Travolta helped a lot more there than you did,” John said.
“Hey, I got the Wall Shadow out of the wall,” she complained.
He nodded, “After battling with Moira, despite us having way different problems, AND after I had to tell you what to do.”
“Whatevs, Moi-M...Moira gets on my nerves!”
“And yet you couldn’t beat her in a duel,” John teased and found himself shoved to the ground.
“That was a fluke and ya know it,” Rave laughed, “I have become way stronger since then.”
“Well, I doubt that she has just been sitting on her ass all this time,” John reminded her, “but she doesn’t have access to a convenient levelling device.”
“Implying that you’re the important difference in my life, are ya?” Rave pinned him to the ground, next to the shower, with a smile.
Her hands were like iron claws, and his playful struggle barely helped him move an inch. He laughed, “Now this is another situation that invokes some memories. All we need is a forest and you being mad at me for thinking that you only like me because of my Stats.”
“Oh, wow, yeah,” Rave’s eyes were looking in his direction, yet it felt like she was gazing at something else entirely. “Just gotta conjure how pissed I was at finding out what mom did...” Her slit pupils narrowed sharply. “Still annoys me...”
“I hope I salvaged that day,” John said and felt something in his head shift. It was a bit of a weird feeling, like 4 girls were stretching after having a group hug for too long. ‘What are those elementals doing in my head?’ John wondered, not for the first time.
“Meh, ya gave me a punching bag... but then ya had your stupid fit about how you are just a puppet of fate or something,” Rave said, only to notice the smile on John’s face dying down a moment later. “You... you don’t still believe that, do you?” she asked in a worried tone.
“Believe it? No. Think it might be an actual possibility? Yes,” John answered. Rave was ready to angrily rant at him for that, but he just continued. “Things have been awfully convenient in a lot of ways. Why do I have this power? Because I do. Why do I get a crystal that lets me create Aclysia right before I get the skill? Because Gaia wants it so. Why do I get a crystal that lets me create Momo right before I get the opportunity? Because Gaia wants it so. Why do I get to know a murdering dragoness who then helps in dire times? Because Gaia wants it so. Why do I get to survive? Because Gaia wants it so.” He sighed heavily. “But for many of these, I don’t know how true they are. Gaia supports my abilities; she doesn’t control them. Maybe I am looking too deep into awful conveniences? It’s not like my life has been all sugar and rainbows since I got these powers. Maybe Gaia isn’t as almighty as everyone thinks? Then that means I am not a puppet, just manipulated into certain directions. I at least have free will to follow those manipulations. If she is almighty, well...” He smirked, without any mirth in it. “...that makes her a giant bitch, us pawns in her game and I have no use worrying about it.”
“Yet you will, ya giant nerd,” Rave purred softly and rested her forehead on his.
“Yeah...but I am your nerd,” John said. For how long they laid there like that, staring into each other’s eyes, John didn’t know. It could have been an eternity or just a blink. It didn’t matter; they were close and whatever machinations of fate existed couldn’t have been that bad if they allowed him moments like this. “Do you miss them sometimes?” John asked after a while.Reaad the latest stories on novelbin(.)com
“Who?” Rave asked, but from the way her hands tensed around his wrists, he could tell that she knew whom he meant.
“Travolta and Jimmie. They could still be around if it weren’t for me,” he said, “If I hadn’t gotten involved maybe the three of you would have just lived out your days.”
John smirked and raised his hand to the ceiling and created an Illusion Barrier. Then Gnome suddenly materialized in front of Rave. “S-sorry,” she apologized as she punched Rave in the chest. The cat-eared Lightbearer flew through the bathroom window.
‘Sylph, feather her fall please... and mine too,’ John instructed as he jumped out of the smashed window. Not that Rave needed the help. With a cat’s grace she made a backwards somersault of her hands, to use up the kinetic energy, then landed on all fours.
“For your interest, that DID hurt... but only a bit,” she smirked while standing up.
“Hey, you agreed to it,” John said and pointed at a nearby dungeon entrance, a hole in the ground that looked like a meteor crater, with his head as he came to a less graceful landing. Even with a slower fall, he was not quite as agile as Rave was.
Which still made him way more agile than the stone elemental that crashed into the ground right next to him. Sure, she landed on both of her feet, but she also sunk several centimetres into the wet ground.
“True, true...It’s way too cold though,” Rave said and started shaking in her wet clothes.
“Then let’s get inside,” John told her, as Sylph was already flying into the opening in the ground. The rest of them quickly followed.
Rave looked around the bridge landscape of the Demon I.D. Cautiously, aware of the many harms John’s barriers typically contained, she proceeded. “So, what level is this?” she asked.
“None,” John answered, “I created the area without monsters.”
“You can do that?” Rave wondered.
“Apparently, I took the gamble,” John answered. He had sent Sylph in advance to confirm this little detail, so far the air spirit hadn’t seen any enemies. “I had this theory for a bit. If I can create the dungeons WITH monsters inside, there is no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it without, right? Can’t do anything else though, guess I would need to level Fateweaver if I wanted more choice in the creation of these, like dungeon size or the enemy spawn rate. Maybe a more worthwhile investment than I initially thought.”
“Well, ya do what ya want to do with those bullshit powers of yours... but why make a dungeon without enemies?” Rave wondered.
“Didn’t that initial punch tip you off?” John passed her and put some distance between the two of them. Rave was standing at the entrance of the dungeon, he was about ten metres down a sloped bridge.
“We are going to fight until you get your mana spent,” John said and threw out his arms. Sylph flew by his side, Undine bubbled up from the ground and Salamander appeared in a fire on his shoulder. Gnome, in a purely mundane manner, walked up to him.
“Way to ruin the impressive get-together, sis,” Salamander cackled.
“Shut up,” Gnome told her in a decisive tone, “I can’t fly like you lot, nothing I can do about it.”
John raised an eyebrow. “Wow, I felt something going on in my head, but when did you get all confident?”
“O-oh, you know, this and that happened,” Gnome dodged the question, immediately snapping back to the usual. Eyes averted, fingertips pushing together, she was the image of adorable shyness. John bowed down to her face, but Gnome just slowly bent backwards, occasionally looking back at him, but never maintaining eye contact for more than a blink. “J-just some typical sorority stuff, y-y-y-you know? Really, nothing worthwhile, absolutely nothing,” Gnome tried to deflect his interest so badly it only made him want to know more.
He looked over to his other elementals. Undine radiated extreme tranquillity. Nothing he could learn from her, it seemed. Salamander shook her head, “If Gnome ain’t telling, I ain’t telling,” she told John. Sylph was holding her breath with puffed cheeks and had both hands crossed over her mouth. Evidently, she was having a hard time not saying it, but she was actually trying to stay quiet., Not a thing he had expected to see today.
“Seems like you are back in charge of this lot,” John congratulated his eldest elemental. “I was really wondering if that had just slipped from your grasp forever, good job.”
“T-thank y-“ Gnome bowed down to feel John’s hand on her head. John could feel the elemental under his hand heat up and heard a silent, “uwuwuwuwuwu.”
‘Ah, well, even if she becomes the leader of this pack again, some things will never change,’ John thought and looked over to Rave. “So, just you and me, no Aclysia, no Momo.”
“Just you and your elementals,” his girlfriend shouted back, “totally fair...but ya know what?” She got into an aggressive stance. “I’ll take that challenge.”
John had Gnome take the frontline while he and Undine stayed back. He wouldn’t have expected any other answer.