“These are my people, traitors of my crown,” Maximillian declared upon hearing this. “I should be the one to take them on.” On the level of honour, he was right. To bad for him that John was more the logic type of guy.

“Your powers are terrible in a stealth setting, you are the head of this country/operation, AND you have no chance against a whole base of people,” the Gamer laid down quite clearly.

“Just let my tiger go in there.” Rave had his back by literally jumping on it and resting her chin on his shoulder while grinning proudly at the king. “He has bullshit powers, he is the best choice here.”

Everyone understood that getting John in there also meant getting his elementals in there. Disgruntled, Maximillian agreed, a theme that seemed to persist in his interactions with John. “Your words’ content is against what I would like to hear, but looking at it logically, you are the best choice.” At least he was able to quickly admit when he was wrong.

Aclysia gently nudged her way into his thoughts. ‘Can you delay this attack for one day, Master? My ability to teleport to your side remains on cooldown until tomorrow,” she requested.

‘Every day that we lose is a day that we could lose the trail on Lydia,’ John said. Not that they even had a trail, but with the speed of the modern age in combination with teleportation and other magics, a day could mean half a world. ‘Also, there is one way you could come in with me, you would need to hop into my inventory for a few minutes though.’

Aclysia’s natural disliking of dwelling in the frozen state of being that was the inside of his inventory was overrun by her worry for him, and she began shrinking down to fit in there without a problem.

“Guess I gotta come with you guys too then,” Momo sighed and began doing the same. “Can’t have you die on me. I need you safe.”

“You sure you want to do this?” Magoi asked as they walked up to the empty version of the castle. They had to be in the area that was covered by both barriers in order to cross over. Unlike gods, they couldn’t just jump into the streams of power that connected everything magical to cross over whenever they wanted.

Well, John couldn’t; Magoi seemed reasonably able to move between barriers. Not on the level of beings purely comprised of magical matter, but he still could do it if needed. “Once you get in there, I can’t get you out. The only way to escape is making the barriers meld.”

“I am aware. I am sure,” John answered in a more certain voice than he actually felt. Perhaps counter-productively, he was thankful that he still felt doubt about all of this. It would keep him from getting over-confident once inside.

Realistically, the strongest the enemy still had to offer was going to be in there together with the majority of a family that had been building up to this for a generation. If John had to make an estimate, there would be between 50 and 100 people in there. Statistically speaking, 90% of them should have been in the level 20 to 50 bracket that John didn’t need to fear in the slightest.

If they were alone. Which they weren’t. So John was very well aware that he should look the hell out and not get pinned. The sheer mass could become dangerous; the remaining 10% of the people inside would then descend on him like spiders.

“Before you get me in there, I have to do one more thing though,” John said after they stopped in a relatively secluded spot between a trimmed hedge and a couple of trees. Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out the spare upgrade token. Without a moment of doubt, he used it on his shoes. Seemed fitting for a sneaking mission.

Sneaky Sneakers were what sounded like the best idea for this mission, but generally, the simple betterment of what they did right now was better. Adapted Footwork sounded particularly nice; checking the description told him that it would mean they would basically always be what they needed them to be, be it winter boots or walking shoes. Therefore, he went with the increased current abilities.

There was no need for the Possession Slot, and the bonuses for arcane were lacklustre to say the least. However, Invoke couldn’t have been that great if it was balanced against these two. Still, it sounded the most like what he wanted, and it was probably unfair to compare item stats to his, since he was just stupidly strong. If he got this item at level 35, it would have been insane. Before picking it, he quickly looked at the different effects it would have.

Many of these were fringe at best. A list of fringe things in one ability, though, was what was called versatile, and John was all about that. This would only further his ability to adapt to nearly every situation. Invoke it was then.

“Okay, get me in there,” John said, and Magoi, acknowledging what had just transpired with a peculiar hum, tapped him on the shoulder with his decorative walking stick. Then he was gone, and John found himself falling in place.

He didn’t move whatsoever, yet he felt like the ground under his feet was constantly slipping and he was dropping into an endless pit. Then everything normalized again in the span of a second. Immediately, John had Gnome open a hole in the ground, and now he was actually falling as the sound of alarm bells rung out above him just a moment later.

They had noticed his invasion, that much was predicted, now the question was whether they already knew where he was. ‘I best relocate,’ John thought and started moving underground while closing the tunnel behind him. It wasn’t cheap on mana, but he had to hide somewhere.

Of course, he had left a few surprises for the enemy above ground. Two teams got moving, one consisting of just Siena and the other of Salamander and Aclysia, the latter to cause havoc and the former to sneak into the facility itself. If either of those turned out to be a losing endeavour, they would have to use their own ability to teleport back to John’s position. Well, Aclysia would need to hide somewhere.

His job in this fight was to stay safe until they had a good guess of the enemies strength. “This is boring,” Sylph complained as she sat in the darkness of their eventual stopping point.

‘Please, refrain from talking out loud,’ John pleaded and pulled a little Momo from his inventory. The support stayed small, as the space inside their little hole was rather limited, and hovered on the spot.

He had no idea what tracking abilities the enemy might have, and given the Abyss’ rather broad spectrum of potential powers, he wouldn’t have been surprised if one of them was sound.

‘Why can’t I be out there as well? I wanna go whoosh and blow them away with my stunning word-stuffs and blowing-stuffs and stuff-stuffs!’ Sylph whined as they followed Salamander cutting through the air as she bombarded the outside with fire spells while enemy attacks flew around and after her. Two enemies took to the skies and chased after her. John provided a second perspective through Jack, allowing Salamander to make her dodge with more precision.

‘This is fucking awesome!’ the fire spirit cackled as she conjured a particularly big fireball and hurled it towards one of the open windows. At least one of them was having the time of her life, burning through a nice bit of Momo’s mana as her attacks clashed against a shield that thinly veiled the building. Aclysia basically only got to tag along, defending Salamander in case any melee fighters came out to try and stop the flying fire elemental.

‘Because I need to breathe, and you are the person who can create air,’ John explained to her and sat down in his little underground cavity. ‘Can you find out how many enemies there are, Gnome?’

‘There are too many interferences and other stuff. If I probe too aggressively, they are going to notice,’ came the answer after a moment. ‘S-sorry.’

‘No problem, was just checking our options. Seems like we have to leave this to Siena after all.’ He closed his eyes, not that that was necessary. Aside from Sylph’s glowing, amber eyes, it was pitch black down here. Then he reached out to Siena’s consciousness, careful not to perturb her.

The shadow spirit was dwelling in the dark outline of a vase. Completely focused on the current obstacle at hand, she remained unaware of John’s gaze.

The wide corridors of the castle were, much to her dismay, equipped with modern lamps. Sneaking through buildings had been much easier when light was something scarce. Someone in the leading department of this whole operation must have had the right idea when Salamander had been spotted and told everyone to switch the lights on everywhere.

The fact that it wasn’t just any fire elemental that was buzzing around out there seemed apparent to everyone. Siena therefore had to move carefully and was stuck on a corner right now; the electric lamps overhead eliminated all shadows that would have allowed her to get around it while remaining in the shadows.

“Can you believe it?” a female voice reached her ears as she dwelled on that problem. “Mistress Blanka makes us do this!” From her position in the shadows, Siena couldn’t see what they were talking about. She was in a pool of darkness, framed by the shape it cast on the ground in the material world. She could only peek through the surface like it was a window in the ceiling.

However, there was a switching noise that Siena had heard before, once, and it had burned itself into her memory. A shudder crept over her spine, they had a flashlight. Whoever thought that giving humans the ability to just shine light wherever they wanted couldn’t be cut enough.

The darkness was her and her kind’s. It was to be feared, not illuminated at the flick of a switch. ‘If they are going to find me anyway…’ Siena thought and prepared to strike.

“She just lost her son to that… thing that appeared in the arena,” a male voice answered, “and now we are stuck in a losing position, can’t blame her for being paranoid.”

It was at that moment that a whirl of shadows beheaded the female holding the flashlight. Blood was trailing through the air and running down the massive purple blades that hung from the end of the two tentacles that grew out of her back like nightmarish appendages. Before the male companion had a chance to scream, Siena raised her right leg in a straight kick. The pointy end of her high-heeled foot sunk into his throat, crushing it in a mere moment. “It’s only paranoia if there is nothing lurking in the depths,” Siena mused as she lowered her leg again.

The man, holding his bleeding and clogged windpipe, slowly turned blue, mouth forming airless sounds. It was a bit of a delight to Siena; these people all wore those same brown robes that Alexej had been clothing himself with. That meant that they were traitors to their nation, and nobody deserved cruelty more than traitors.

The idea of just leaving him to slowly suffocate was tempting indeed, but she remembered John’s warning. Valuing someone’s opinion of her above her instincts was strange. It shrunk her chest together, the thought of being ousted from this circle of people that she had gotten so close to. She ended the man’s life by slitting his throat and went on her way.

The flashlight had fallen to the ground, still turned on, and now allowed her to get around the corner. She was ready to jump into that streak of darkness when five people came running at her. Three of them were wearing that same robe, the other two the green uniforms. “That bitch killed them!”

The man must have been a telepath, or there had to have been some other form of warding around that Siena hadn’t come into contact with until now. She brandished her claws and charged at the enemy.

Without the element of surprise, she wasn’t quite fighting how she preferred to, but that didn’t make her weak. She unleashed, her light blue skin becoming naught but shadow; greyish pink hair swayed like the flame of a candle as it rose, becoming shorter in the process.

The stealth was over, now she would slaughter her way in if she had to. She aimed to eviscerate the two uniformed soldiers that made up the frontline. They only had a second to react; Siena had never been of the slow kind, and her contract with John had only pushed her further and further. When she had made the contract with him, never had she anticipated that it would give her this much power.

Both of them successfully parried her attacks with their weapons. Terrible screeching sounds, like splintered glass on chalkboard, filled corridors and, without a doubt, alerted everyone in the building as her claws dug trenches into the blades.

However, it wasn’t Siena’s goal to engage them in a fight. Taking out enemies had never been the goal. John had trusted her with a single job: to locate and eliminate the enemy Fateweaver. Succeeding in that was what was most important; she had to try and regain his trust. She needed to prove herself to John.

‘I cried because of him, what a disgrace,’ Siena hissed at herself when she broke through that group and ran down the shadowless hallway. An explosion of pain spread from her back throughout her body. Clenching her carnivorous teeth together, Siena ignored her desire to turn around and slowly flay the person that attacked her.

‘He slapped me,’ she continued as she broke through a door and was greeted by an array of weak lightning strikes crackling over her skin. She only slashed at the source in passing. The attack was weak; the damage she sustained started to show its nasty effects. Her path down the rooms and corridors continued, a desperate opening of doors as she asked herself one question over and over again.

‘Why do I even care so much?!’ She knew love, love was a nasty feeling towards interesting people who always turned out to be assholes rather quickly. This couldn’t have been love. Shouts echoed down the hallway behind her; they were slowly catching up. When had she started limping so slowly that people were able to keep up with her?

She broke into one last door, and there he was, a man sitting in a bed with a strained look on his face, a woman with a raised sword at his side, charging at Siena without a word. Her expression was that of a crying mother whose willpower kept her barely functioning.

Siena had seen that face before. When her mother had put her in her cell. “One day I will give you to someone who I deem able to make you feel true love, then you may stop on your self-destroying path.”

At the time, Siena had cursed and ridiculed her. Now she had to admit…

The sword was about to hit her, it was so stupidly slow, but she was exhausted and hurt. There was no way she could dodge this and kill her target. She subjected herself to the feeling of helplessness, the world pulled at her, and then she was where John was, in welcoming darkness in which she could see much more clearly than any daylight.

John looked worried. He looked infinitely worried for her. “Why didn’t you listen to me? I told you to come back a couple of times already!”

“I didn’t hear you, because I needed to prove something,” Siena whispered; her body felt so incredibly frail now that all momentum had left her. “I have to admit that Mother was right, I love you.”

“This is hardly the time for…” John was interrupted by Siena kissing him, for the first time without ulterior motives or just out of lust. A simple kiss, without tongue, lips on lips.

“I get the feeling you were in my head the last few minutes, you bad boy,” she sighed teasingly, laughing as her voice slipped back into her usual oversexualized vibes as Undine’s healing powers pulsated out of the glove and reinvigorated her. “Don’t you know a lady needs her privacy? I should torture you for a bit so you learn your lesson.”

John fell silent. “You are so damn twisted,” he said, no longer concerned about being located.

“Yes,” Siena admitted, “I am a vile, sadistic woman. I don’t plan to change too much…,” she fell into his arms, pressing her feminine curves against him in a seductive way. Her bust squished between them; her skin returning to blue, covered with the latex-looking shadows, she locked eyes with her summoner, “…but for you, I will restrain myself.”

“That I can work with,” the Gamer said and caressed her silky hair as it fell back into place, with her unleashed state finally ending. “If you keep your word, I swear you will have a place to stay with me.”

“And you will love me?”

“Maybe if you actually change a bit instead of just restraining yourself.”

That wasn’t good enough for her, but it was the best she would get. “I will speed up that process and make it worth your while, you will see,” Siena whispered into his ear, sliding a hand over his cock.

John shuddered; his pants were getting a bit tight. “That sounds wonderful and all, but right now, my priorities lie elsewhere.”

They still had the base to conquer.