John’s emotions were a tumble. Annoyance, sadness, grim satisfaction and the relief of reassurance, all suppressed by the analytical mind of someone in a difficult situation. ‘At least I didn’t throw up seeing the prophecy come true,’ he thought. ‘Reality is often less intense than imagination, I suppose.’

The ease with which they manoeuvred their way out of the city without having to care about Mark was staggering. There was barely any comparison anymore between the abilities of John and even above average Abyssals. John found no pleasure in this fact, at least at the moment. Usually, he was all too happy to be superior to others, at the moment it reminded him of the death he had inflicted on others.

Smoothly, they progressed south. They had more reason to be careful as they travelled. The density, size and power of the Lorylim only increased. Their level range was much narrower, but still higher overall. The lowest entity they encountered was level 184, the highest 254. John could only imagine the kind of horror this kind of force could unleash, were they ever able to leave the Death Zone.

Luckily, there were also fewer abominations around, so that countered their increased power.

‘Suggestion: earlier theory about the city centre being the place of maximum competition should be counted as disproven,’ Beatrice communicated mentally. ‘New evidence suggests that powerful Lorylim hosts are concentrated either at the airport or by bodies of water. Earlier patterns suggest the latter to be the case.’

‘Yeah, looks that way,’ John agreed, as they walked out behind the last wall of the city. The only building beyond this point was the ruin of the airport in the distance and John didn’t trust that to be even a minor safe haven, given the mass of stalks and teeth that had replaced the control tower. ‘You doing fine, Metra?’

‘…No,’ the First of Wrath answered. ‘This day is a bit much for me, gonna be fucking honest. That asshole Enki being alive is one thing but… Mother Chaos too?’

There was little to no doubt about it at this point. Sharing the memory of the metal carapace’s appearance, combined with Izha’s declaration of ‘her’ grace having touched him, made the deduction that Tiamat was part of the Lorylim hivemind a virtual guarantee. It still didn’t suffice for a complete answer for what the Lorylim were, however. They didn’t spawn from Tiamat, so how did it come that the goddess of chaos was in charge of them – if she even was?

‘I saw her removed from existence before my very eyes,’ Metra told him. ‘How the fuck is this possible?’

‘Perhaps Gaia didn’t remove her, but just moved her somewhere else for whatever reason,’ John theorized, ‘or perhaps some part of her flesh was still around and she spread her influence from there?’

‘Is our supreme deity THIS sloppy?!’ Metra’s thoughts were filled with confusion and anger. ‘GAH! I need to vent frustration before I can consider this clearly.’

‘You’ll probably get to soon,’ John told her, watching a cloud of dust and spores rise in the distance. They continued to close in as carefully as they could to not draw attention. Once they were within 500 metres, Focus Vision kicked into action. Within range, John could always see a single pre-marked target through one of the Vision of Calamity lenses he had activated the Attribute with. Before going to bed, one such marked target had been Rave, the other was the mad bundle of power he saw jumping around at the moment, fighting with a whole host of monstrous mutants. ‘Eliza’s ability to attract the worst trouble continues to serve her… alright, charge!’

Their comrade found, the trio discarded the previous care and accelerated. Metra and Beatrice pulled ahead, one fuelled by rage, the other eager to fulfil the mission given. Around John, the elementals manifested. Salamander and Sylph flew, Gnome joined John in his sprint, Siena turned invisible and Stirwin took his place as the equipped Item Form. Only Undine did not materialize outright.

‘Sylph, give me some clarity here,’ the Gamer instructed.

‘Roger, roger.’ The arcvolt elemental channelled the simplest of air magic and emphasized the effect with her power. A powerful gust of wind rolled over the landscape and blew the excess of spores and dust away to reveal the place Eliza had been fighting in for the past couple hours. Craters and corpses were scattered about and many more bodies were coming after Eliza as a serpent of malignant growths and flesh.

“ELIZA!” John shouted, just to make the pretty little psycho aware that reinforcements were there. When she next landed, she started sprinting in his direction, blood red aura ignited. Cackling with relief and joy, she threw herself at him. He barely managed to catch her, took a couple twirling steps, and struggled to oblige both her hug and remain standing. Eliza’s lips pressed on his left cheek. “One thing after the other!” he reprimanded her, a smile on his own lips, and threw her in the direction of the monstrosity now coming for them.

The serpent-esque fusion of bodies opened a massive maw, the teeth jagged, misaligned and of vastly varying sizes, and threatened to swallow the blood mage whole. Strands of red expanded from Eliza’s nails, turning into a rope attached to the upper jaw of the Lorylim. Eliza changed her trajectory by pulling herself upwards. She twisted around, then her heels smashed down on the abomination’s head.

Size ceased to matter at that moment, the small woman causing the attack to come to a dead stop as the head splattered down on the pavement. The long body frayed open into teethed limbs and leg-like stalks. From serpent, to centipede, the monstrosity transformed, only to split into the individual bodies when showered by attacks from the other haremettes.

In a matter of seconds, the battlefield turned into a confusing mess, individual Lorylim hosts throwing themselves at the girls without any regard for life. Some of the creatures even took to the air, the black Lorylim matter surrounding the bodies of what had once been elementals or half-elementals. Everywhere, corrupted flesh writhed and squelched as it was cut and stretched into forms more suitable to single units in combat.

Utilizing the Mandala Sphere to maintain the overview in this situation wasn’t as easy as usual, but John did his best to force some order into the chaos while taking part in the combat. Several Lorylim descended on him and John used Magus Step to get out of the perimeter. The monsters coalesced on one spot, only to be hit by Salamander’s attack a moment later. Boosted by her Unleash, the spell took the form of a meteorite that blasted apart the squishy bodies of the monsters. Her fire, still possessing anti-Lorylim properties from her time as an endflame elemental, spread over their corrupted features.

Much like the spores didn’t do much to people of their power, so did her fire not cause the immediate demise of these hosts. Still, the fire stuck and sizzled away at them, golden heat turning corruption into ash.

Killing even one of these Lorylim was a difficult task. The overabundance of additional mycelium around meant that they regenerated unless the host body was sufficiently destroyed. Since the present Lorylim were also the strongest in the entire barrier (at least John hoped so), that once untainted core was covered under quite a lot of warped existence.

Still, one target after the other, they proceeded. The balance of power was tilted in the group’s favour. They were faster, stronger and smarter. All the Lorylim had on them were numbers and that could be overcome eventually.

Or so John thought before the murky waters started stirring. ‘Watch out!’ he warned Siena. The midnight elemental reacted as quickly as she could, dashing forwards. Several teeth-tipped tentacles exploded out from the water in a fountain of Lorylim matter and saltwater. One of them caught Siena by the neck. She cut it with her tail. The momentary stop was enough for two others to ram into her back.

Sylph was on the scene immediately, slicing the other two tentacles off. Metra came in next, cleaving apart the bloated mass of corpses that surfaced with Rex Magnar. Gnome, meanwhile, ripped the tentacles out of Siena’s back and then carried her over to John as quickly as she could. Eliza covered them, a storm of blood magic and martial arts.

‘Alright, Undine, we need you now,’ John told the still incorporeal abysstide elemental.

‘The risk…’ she started.

‘Swing your ass out of hiding already,’ Siena hissed. ‘You’re stronger than this.’

There was a last wave of doubt, then Undine manifested next to them. Slowly, she bent over Siena’s injured body, quivering nervously while she did so. Then she stopped moving altogether. John and Gnome nervously glanced at each other, their attention split between witnessing the scene and their hostile surroundings.

Then a shudder went through Undine’s body. The markings that rose so visibly from her dark blue slime were rapidly drained of their colour. The red that had been carved into her ever since her corruption almost a year ago was replaced by the same, cleansed black that John’s and Salamander’s marks had. Relief spread through all of them and Undine, despite their current situation, laughed to herself while mending the holes in Siena’s back.

“If anybody fucking cackles around here, that’s my useless ass!” Eliza complained, grabbing the descending paw of a quadrupedal creature whose body was just a clump of writhing tentacles, each ending in an eye or small, circular maw.

Metra succeeded in smiting that one, but several more Lorylim rose from underneath the surface, all in the same level range as those they were already fighting. ‘Well, that’s going to be an issue,’ John thought. Their enemies weren’t weak enough that he felt comfortable just keeping on the slaughter. They would run out of mana eventually and then it would be all about Eliza and Metra alone.

Just as one started to wonder if they could perhaps face this nightmarish tide, the entire surface of the bay quivered. The simple black layer stirred, as if excited fish underneath thrashed around. Droplets flew up and fell back down into the eyes and mouths that opened on top of the waves. Finally, a segment of the surface ooze tore off from the rest. As a sapient layer of vile oil, it gathered before the coast. John had no reason to wait until it manifested into a proper shape to cast Observe.

With one eye on the remaining carpet of ooze on the water, John thought, ‘We can’t deal with that here.’ “We’re retreating west!” he shouted and started running. The girls didn’t follow immediately, first having to help each other free themselves of whatever engagement they were currently in. Metra had it worst of all being in the Manifestation’s reach. A humanoid arm with stubby, highly unequally sized fingers reached for her. The First of Wrath’s position was covered by the liquid hand. Filth splattered everywhere, the smell of rot, tang and mud reached John through the portal, out of which Metra emerged.

“Run faster!” the berserker shouted, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him along. Anger fuelled her steps, concrete broke under her armoured soles and, albeit John didn’t appreciate being a figurative flag in the wind, he had to admit that this was a much faster mode of movement. He even got to fire Arc Lances at the many Lorylim chasing them.

Many were all of them, to be exact. Every last Lorylim they had fought by the water was after them. They screamed and salivated, like a pack of eldritch dogs, as they went after the invaders of the Death Zone. The Manifestation of Filth stabilized its form as a headless giant with a body of mud and water, dripping corruption as it ran along. More Lorylim creatures, agitated by the ongoings, still crawled out of the water.

‘HOW ABOUT A FUCKING ARCANA STRIKE, HUH?!’ Metra screamed at him.

‘That would leave me without mana, not advisable in this situation.’

‘FUCK YOUR LOGIC, I AM PISSED!’ Metra smashed through the wall of a building and then whirled around, dragging Rex Magnar through the concrete. It took less than two seconds, then she resumed running. John could hear the remaining walls cracking. By the time they emerged on the other side, the house collapsed on top of their pursuers. It wouldn’t stop them, but at least the Lorylim hosts would be confused for a few seconds.

Under the light of rotten stars, they kept on running. The Mandala Sphere struggled to keep up with them. John first burned the stored mana to keep up, but eventually all of that was consumed. Below, they were partially turning on each other, all of their competition instincts kicking back in. That was only between the lesser ones, however. The strongest Lorylim, those that were already amalgams themselves, didn’t care for the infighting. Likely, they had reached the final stage of their personal evolution already.

What was below suddenly got a whole lot closer to the Mandala Sphere. Rather, grabbed by several of the flying Lorylim, the Mandala Sphere got a lot closer to them. The magic-fuelled thing smacked down on the ground. Curious faces, corrupted air elementals that had the merest spark of their personality still remaining inside them, bowed over the object. John tried to dislodge it from their grasp, but it was for naught. Laughing with the carefreeness of children and with dripping mouths that opened vertically down their throats, they tore apart the Mandala Sphere metal plate for metal plate. The passive Unstable Arcana waves that erupted in the process didn’t bother them.