“I cannot believe this is how we get around,” John mumbled as the train pulled into the station. They were travelling first class, which was nice as it gave them an isolated area within the train that shielded their group from interested eyes.

Between the two incredibly young guys wearing suits that would have made billionaires ask about their tailor, the clear Nier:Automata cosplayer in her winter outfit, the girl in the weird poncho and the, ironically enough least outstanding, pink-haired girl in her fluffy jacket, there was plenty to be interested in.

They had taken a plane to Vienna, which in itself had been boring already. On the way and while there, Maximillian had coordinated his subordinates. That was the first time John had seen the bravado-ridden speech of the king be useful. People chewed up his confidence; it was like it became part of them, reinvigorated soldiers that had looked too tired to even stand-straight anymore and bureaucrats with deep rings under their eyes alike.

It was really stunning, even more so was the tired look that Maximillian now displayed. He was really quite the actor and understood his craft of inspiring those who followed him, but the reports he had gotten obviously hadn’t gone over him seamlessly. All it was, was a game of appearances. Which was why John decided to not get on his case about it and instead complained about the decidedly boring choice of vehicle.

“You seem to have an overly romantic vision of how the Abyss works in numerous places,” Maximillian commented, “but I guarantee you that this is the fastest way to get where we need to be, save teleporting. I am sure Lydia gave you the rundown why that isn’t feasible.”

“It really should be though, this is war. I would think you would pool together all resources to deal with these things,” John returned after a moment of thinking.

The king raised an eyebrow in a mocking way. “You would expend mana to teleport next to a stationary and encircled enemy while under no time pressure?” he asked. “Buddy, that is pretty stupid.”

“Mhm, point taken,” John yawned; “Although I disagree about the part with the pressure. The more time I… we spend away from Lydia, the more anxious I become.” He changed his formulation midway through, but it seemed enough for Maximillian’s thoughts to wander into a direction John would have rather avoided.

“Did you sleep with her?” the king’s question was as straight as his eyes were looking at John.

Not quite sure how the man in-front of him, one who very recently had been betrayed, would react to this, John told the truth. “Yes, more than that.” He didn’t go into great detail or threatened Maximillian to keep his mouth shut about this to the press.

A few tense seconds passed, then Maximillian averted his eyes and stared out of the window instead. “I see,” was all that he had to say.

John could only guess what was going on in the monarch who was alone on his side of the aisle. Did this hurt him even more and it was only the still present pain of Alexej’s backstabbing that kept this pain in check? Did he actually not know what to feel? Was he even confused why he asked in the first place? Perhaps this was Maximillian burying his last feelings for someone he knew he wouldn’t have become happy with in the first place.

Who could have known? Not John, that much was certain.

“Did I just witness one of these mythological moments where guys speak about their feelings?” Rave asked, pulling off her cat-ear headphones, “W-o-w, that was both anticlimactic and somewhat cute.” The only reason why she even had been able to follow that conversation was because Maximillian and Momo both had barraged her with requests to reduce the volume.

“I am your boyfriend, Jane, could you not ship me with another guy?” John requested as they got up from their seats and stepped into the station.

“I am not shipping ya, your butt is mine,” Rave defended herself while they assumed a semi-natural walking formation that included his hand to rest on her shoulder (normally it would have been her butt, but her jacket was in the way of tapping that) and her hand around his waist. Well, now she groped his behind. “I am just making fun of ya.” She stuck out her tongue.

“…And you are making Aclysia radiate more envy than plutonium radiates in general,” John said and then spontaneously bowed down to Rave to kiss her. Well, not completely spontaneously, the mention of radioactive material had sparked something in his brain.

“That was a nice one, you are getting better!” she smiled at him, arms wrapped around the back of his neck. That beautiful smile, like the rising sun, that illuminated his soul and burned away the worries in his soul. She lightly punched him in the side. “What are ya thinking about, staring at me like that?”

“My last thought was that I could never kiss you again,” he told her and quickly did so a second time before she could answer something sarcastic. She greeted his tongue with her own, and there was some desperate greed and a lot of satisfaction in this second kiss.

“Ya know what? Mine was the same,” she whispered into his ear as they had stopped to make out and she was now embracing him deeply.

“Okay, great, you had your little moment,” Maximillian finally reminded them that this reality still had some urgency. “And I think that there is someone here that is rather wanting for some of your attention.”

‘Who could want something from me now?’ John sighed as he and Rave both turned their head to look who the gravity mage was referring to. The moment he saw the dark blue-hair, he knew that he wasn’t the one in question.

“I am not quite sure whether to blame your laziness or the train network on this delay,” Nariko Hollmey said, following the ticks of her little neon-pink watch, sticking out of a suit the colour of her hair. As always, some parts of her outfit just didn’t sync up with the rest of her looks.

“See, this is how a daughter, who just survived an invasion by some red-hammers, wants to be greeted by her mother who she hasn’t seen since using an attack knocking both of them out in a fight,” Rave said to John, her voice dripping in sarcasm.

Nariko lowered her arm and sighed. “I can take that criticism. I am here to watch over you, Daughter.”

“Ya remember how I beat ya?” Rave teased. “I don’t need your protection, and ya know it! Go look after Liz!”

“That was a lucky tie based on surprise; you will need a few more years to beat me reliably,” Nariko admitted something there in an off-handed matter that John found remarkable, that a mother could even say that while hiding the pride in her voice. It was rather apparent on her face though. “Also, Liz isn’t here anymore, I had her go back to Japan. You think I would leave my own daughters in a warzone after I fought my whole life to get you out of one?”

“So ya want to drag me off?” Rave immediately went to the worst possible assumption. Arms tightening around John, her whole body holding onto him for security, she disrespectfully stuck out her tongue and spelled it out for her mother in a slightly slurred manner. “N-O-P-E, I’m staying, yahearme?”

“I know. As I stated, I am here to watch over you. You need to work on your comprehension skills,” Nariko criticized; “If I can’t get you to come to a safe place with me, I will at least make sure you stay safe right where I am.”

“That’s… actually kind of nice of you,” Rave was so surprised that it even overwhelmed her accent for a moment.

“Good, with this much fighting power, there is no need for us to stay in one group,” Maximillian decided. “You two can take the eastern part of the city, Geidorf, Mariatrost and Waltendorf.”

“Sure,” Nariko said.

“Has been a while since I went to war, it will be fun,” Rave said and pressed a goodbye kiss on her boyfriend’s cheek. “Gonna do the wise thing and try to actually get along with Mom for a change, okay?” It seemed that her mother’s gesture of actually showing concern had gone miles towards the two of them reconciling. “Also, gonna make her buy me ice cream with all of that money she chose over being in my childhood.” Or maybe just a few metres.

John still approved, but he was somewhat confused about something different, “If we are about to have a fight for the province, shouldn’t we stick together?”

“We need to find the people before we can fight them,” Nariko berated him.

“Just leave the explanations of this to me, Nariko; I assure you that I got this handled with a firm grip,” Maximillian said with a deep bow and a charming smile that would have made inexperienced girls swoon.

Behind her mother’s back, Rave made a face that looked like she was about to puke. “I see. Daughter, we are doing as Maximillian requests.”

“I have a name, ya know? Ya gave it to me!” said daughter complained while tip-tapping after Nariko. “How did you even know where to find me?”

“I have my people everywhere.”

Now down to four people, John, Maximillian, Aclysia and Momo made their way to the west of the city. It was the provincial capital of Styria, a city named Graz. Well, actually it was called a ‘Bundesland’ of Austria, but that didn’t really matter that much to John.

All he cared about was that this was his actual first Abyssal war. A proper war, not the little gang clash he had with the Bloodfallen. “How does this work then?” John finally asked after they left the central train station.

“Did anyone ever tell you that the fact that you are this powerful but haven’t even been in the Abyss for long enough to know this basic thing is bullshit?” Maximillian wondered.

“Numerous times for different topics. Will you give me an answer or just unnecessary sass, buddy?” John returned a question.

“For the sake of ease, I will explain it to you. Abyssal warfare has three basic components. Tracking, trapping and then eliminating the enemy. For step one we need to locate the enemies, either out in the world or by finding one of their barriers,” Maximillian rattled on as they passed normal people that were way too caught up in their own lives to notice the two guys in suits apparently chatting about a videogame.

John got the basic idea already. He activated his aura sight and kept his lookout for anyone who was above average. “What do we do when we find someone?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

“We engage in the second step: we create a barrier and then-“

“Got it, can you accept my group invite?” John asked, and the little window appeared in front of the king, who did click yes after a moment’s confusion.

“Why the haste all of a sudden?” the question came a mere second before John created a barrier. He had never used a trap barrier before. Truthfully, this couldn’t have been regarded as such either. A trap barrier was more sophisticated than what he did, actually having some isolating or otherwise negative effect on the victim and tethering its control firmly to a person rather than just the strongest force inside. All he did here was create a barrier with the intent of pulling someone in when he created it.

The moment they had faded from reality, the poor guy looked around with major confusion.

That wasn’t even a challenge. “Just for the protocol, how do things normally go from here?” John asked, ignoring a confused jumble of words flying his and Maximillian’s way. Something about ‘the face of german suppression’ and ‘the arrogant gamer’.

He had Aclysia take care of the guy and press him to the floor as the king answered. “We would see if he is a friend or an enemy, that is a rather easy task normally. Friendly people will have some sort of identification, while enemies will try to get away or attack you.”

“Not that fighting us is a good idea… so elimination means we kill the target?” John asked. This part he was slightly iffy about. He wasn’t quite fond of killing, especially when it was this absolutely unnecessary. That guy wouldn’t even be a threat to him if he stood still, probably unable to dish out more damage than John regenerated mana and thus covered with Mana Protection.

Maximillian nodded, “That is what it normally means. Although we could also take him prisoner. For that I, frankly, do not have the time. Crippling wouldn’t work, annoyingly enough, because he would be healed the moment he left this barrier because of Gaia.”

‘Right, Gaia keeps that in place so that the streets won’t be filled with bloodied people appearing out of nowhere,’ John reminded himself. He had only come into contact with that phenomenon once, so it was easy to forget.

“You will have to kill me, you monarchist pigs!” the guy on the ground shouted.

“He is the monarchist pig, I am a proud capitalist swine, please and thank you,” John berated the man. “Look, I am currently thinking about how I can spare your life, so shut up for a minute!”

“I don’t need your mercy! For the utopia on earth!” a crunching noise could be heard and then the man started glowing for a moment before exploding into a sudden burst of raw magic energy, enveloping Aclysia, who had held him down.

John scratched his head, forehead covered in wrinkles, as the pillar of red-greyish smoke rose upwards. Stepping out as if nothing happened to her whatsoever, Aclysia took a bow. “I failed to realize the suicide contraption, please excuse me, Master.”

“How would you have known?” He did and turned to Maximillian instead. The death of the man didn’t particularly irk him. John had already felt dulled to death by the first time he had witnessed it. Back then it had been his survival instinct preventing him from dwelling on it for too long, together with his medium Wisdom. Now he was both experienced with death and pain as well as hella wise. If they chose to blow themselves up, that was their thing.

“That’s also something they like to do, carry a small stash of personalized mana absorbent in their mouth. Once cracked it sucks all the mana out of their body and…” he gestured at the smoke, “well, you saw it.”

“Personalized… so they can’t use that on me, right?” John didn’t even dare to imagine what kind of explosion he would turn into if they managed to get it into contact with him.

“Yes, it needs to be attuned to each person. Anyhow, you shouldn’t expect to be able to save anyone in this war. Romulus declared goal is eradication, we are going to leave none alive,” Maximillian finished his explanation as they left the barrier again and just went further down the street as if nothing happened.

‘So, basically abyssal warfare is gang warfare with magic,’ John mentally concluded. They were patrolling the turf, searching for enemy gang members and barriers where they had their bases. “A Fateweaver would be pretty useful to have in this,” he added out loud.

These people were basically walking radars for barriers. Also, they would make sure that the barrier was always under the control of the side who had the stronger Fateweaver, instead of the stronger mage. Whoever controlled the barriers dictated the rules of engagement. After all, they could just run without problem whenever they didn’t like what happened.

“Yes, they would, but Romulus is still checking how deep the corruption goes through that guild. If their leader was with the enemy already, we can’t risk anymore traitors in the field. Few things are more catastrophic than a Fateweaver turning his coat,” Maximillian answered. “Anyway, all of this aside, occasionally you will be able to find an actual battlefield; usually, however, its just sides trying to find enemy members and taking care of them there and then, something we should be more than capable of doing.”

“No joke, the average guy is… very weak,” John said, then he stopped dead in his tracks. “I think I just found their base.”