“What the hell is even happening?” John wondered. Maximillian had flown them high enough to break out of the fog of war that encompassed everything on a ground level. Up here, the air was chilly, but it was also easy to breathe in a way that made John’s lungs, who had been pumping dust over the last few minutes, scratchy from suddenly being able to work as intended. Lights ebbed up and died within the grey fog as the sounds of guns, magic and swinging swords permeated the air. The clouds began to claim the crater John had left mere moments later.

Just as the scratchy mist below obscured the scars on the land, the clouds above seemed to disappear entirely. They parted and revealed the reason for John’s exclamation. There was an eclipse. At… what time was it even? He got out his phone only to see that he had a missed call from Eliza. He would have to rectify that in a minute.

Well, the answer was that there was an eclipse at almost 11 PM, in January. It shone its pale golden light through the symbol of a tree with two serpents that the Construct of Order had created earlier. John easily figured out who was to blame for this phenomenon, but that didn’t make it any less imposing.

The emperor in question majestically soared up into the sky on eagle wings of silver and gold, coming to a standstill with his back to the eclipse. “I command this world to break,” his incantation echoed over the battlefield in the all-encompassing language of power, “and reorder itself in my image!”

The light of the eclipse was drawn to Romulus’ raised right hand, gathering in a white glowing orb that radiated mists of gold which tumbled down through the air like a waterfall. Pointing that mass of energy at the Construct of Order, Romulus ended the spell’s weaving, “Nova.” With that single word, the compressed energy flew forth.

The autonomous weapon hadn’t been just waiting for that attack to come, instead charging its main cannon again and answering with its own energy ball. The two god-killer attacks connected, one white and gold, the other ever shifting colours. Romulus’ attack ripped through the Construct of Order’s and then hit the wretched machinery.

The small sun melted itself right into the construct, stopping at the heart of the machine. Two seconds passed, and then the whole thing began to melt from the inside out, slowly being consumed by an expanding sun. The scorching heat reached John and Maximillian, and everyone with an ounce of common sense hid somewhere from the blinding light.

When the attack had consumed all of the construct, it suddenly imploded into a singular point. A shockwave, that caused the two closest Grey Golems to fall over like domino blocks in a gust of wind, ripped outwards. Molten splatters of the construct were scattered all over the battlefield like superheated rain.

John and Maximillian were almost tossed off the platform they were hovering on, only Maximillian affixing their shoes with his powers as well as a combination of Mana Protection and Undine forming a bubble around them saved them. However, they were still violently blown westwards, which was good because that’s were their allies’ backline was.

It didn’t look like Maximillian would be able to halt their rather immense momentum before crashing right into the contingent that had remained there. Their arrival would be met with broken bones and blood instead of relieved tears and hugs, if they kept this tempo and crashed right into them. At the head of all of them stood the important looking man with the crystalized face.

Once they came close, they simply stopped and landed as soft as a feather on a cushion. It happened so suddenly that John wasn’t quite sure if his inner ears were happy with the change in momentum.

“Watch where you find yourself,” the old man berated them with that friendly smile that only energetic old people who really didn’t care anymore could have.

“John, ya stupid dick,” Rave fell around his neck, and soon, he was buried under a mountain of happy girls that had waited for him to come back to them. Under their combined charge, he toppled over and landed on the ground. “That was super dangerous! I do dangerous stuff, ya should go and stand around and gimme advice, that’s the basis of the relationship here!”

“Maybe I want you to worry for a change, mhm?” John teased and kissed her deeply as everyone else in his present harem, save for Lydia who was watching the whole thing with a raised eyebrow, was laying on top of him. Interestingly enough, that pile included Momo, who skydived on top of it. She may not have been in love with him, but they were something more than good friends. “You and your endlessly thrill-seeking butt.”

“It’s a good butt!” Rave defended herself.

“The best butt,” John agreed and fondled it a bit. To that end, he didn’t give a single fuck about everyone of the present international elites. It wasn’t like it was a secret that he was a pervert, and he certainly didn’t plan on hiding it. He was physically attracted to sexy girls who liked and/or loved him. Whoever the idiot was that would get upset about that could just bugger off.

“Yes, yes, don’t thank the cripple who risked his life to get him out of there,” Maximillian groaned as he dusted off his cape. Of course that was entirely useless; it was enchanted to stay clean in the first place.

He was proven wrong rather quickly as Aclysia jumped to her feet and bowed down so deeply that her shapely behind became visible to everyone. “From the bottom of my soul,” she spoke, “I thank you, your Majesty.”

“Yeah, good job,” Rave added. The elementals gave their own series of compliments over the course of which the king straightened his back more and more and assumed a position of someone who felt absolute vindication for his actions in life.

“While I do not approve of who that is, I too have to thank you for saving my daughter’s boyfriend,” Nariko was the last to add to the list.

“It wasn’t much, really,” Maximillian said, now trying to downplay the whole thing. “Although you should have seen the Gamer pitifully cowering, grasping at straws for his life when I heroically swo-ow!”

The old man chopped Maximillian on top of the head with his left hand that was, just like his face, covered in crystals. Those, as John just noticed, previously blue gemstones had assumed an almost black purple. “Stop with your bravados, you whelp, and go help your emperor if you have that much energy left!”

Whoever this was, the king must have held both fear and respect for the man as, and that was the true miracle, Maximillian obeyed without another word and flew off.

“Now, I think it is time the two of us introduce ourselves,” the old man continued; “I am Rodaclam of Oreh, chancellor of the Greater Roman Empire.”

John’s eyes widened a bit at that announcement. He only had heard that name once before, in a news article that Magoi had shown him, and back then it had meant very little to him. Now that John had a little bit more knowledge of the Abyss, he understood just how meaningful a position this man was holding, being second to the Apex himself. What would his power be? He just stopped the flight of Maximillian and him, and his crystals had changed colours in return. Some type of copying ability perhaps? Adaptability of his soul type? He could speculate pretty wildly here; after all, this man must have been at the top of even the Primarch category, a true monster.

“I am John Newman, the Gamer,” he answered while still running through the possibilities.

“And future ruler of America, I know,” Rodaclam cackled. The short hesitation in John’s breath was all the man needed to continue. “Actually, I just guessed that but thanks for the confirmation. May I ask why you want to take over the USA?”

“Because it being the laughing stock of the Abyssal world hurts my patriotic heart,” John answered.

“I don’t believe you,” the chancellor returned.

“Pardon?” This conversation had been weird from the start, but now it felt like he was getting information pulled out of his nose. The smartest thing would have been to shut up, but Rodaclam conspiratorially leaned downwards and, now quieter, continued their conversation with as much privacy as a ruined city allowed. Which was a lot actually because the sounds of battle made listening in pretty hard.

“I know your type, the late-bloomers. Often get bullied your whole life, the system you dwell in isn’t really to your taste, and you just live with it because you see no way to change. You drown yourself in books or other entertainment because every day and human interaction has just become a chore,” Rodaclam laid down; “People like you aren’t particularly patriotic.”

That hit painfully close to home, and it made John wonder. Was he just doing it because he felt like America deserved it? That’s what he had thought, but when he dug a bit deeper, he actually found a much simpler reason, one much more powerful and way less on the altruistic side. He wanted to conquer all of the USA because he thought HE deserved it. Because he and his overly pushed Intellect and Wisdom had realized that he COULD take it over. It was the ugly side of people that often showed itself in gaming whenever somebody was miles in the lead. Sure, you could end the game immediately, but why not make sure every single enemy building was destroyed beforehand? Sure, he could live his days peacefully, but why not show the world that he was powerful?

‘Now that’s a slap in the face,’ John thought as he did his best rein in this overarching sense of superiority that he had just discovered. That was a part of himself he should have checked in on sooner; he just ignored it because everything was going pretty nice. ‘Evidently, even with extremely high Wisdom, I am still capable of being very stupid,’ John told himself and made a mental note to question why he did things more often. He had fallen too much in love with the products of his own mind, because of how often he had been proven to be correct in recent times. ‘I feel like I am missing humbleness in my elemental line-up. Gnome is patience, Salamander is passion, Sylph is flexibility, Undine is determination, and Siena is… well, she is an evil sadist, but she is also about teaching people to stand on their own. Would light give me some humbleness? Ah well, we will see when I get it.’

Rodaclam just grunted as if he could read exactly what was going on inside that head of his. “I recommend you work on your lying game if you want to be a big one in the Abyss. Not to actually lie, just so I can’t extract every single truth out of your gestures. I am not a particularly good guy, and I know that you know people that know that they are very manipulative creatures, you know?”

John felt like he was alluding to Richard there, so he just nodded, and Rodaclam rolled his shoulders, causing the tubes to rattle for a bit. “Romulus actually started moving before he was fully healed once he realized you and the princess were encircled. His wives were furious, but he healed the rest on the way, so they had no room to complain too much. Seeing how you basically slaughtered a whole battalion on your own, I don’t think hurrying so much was necessary.”

“Well, I am happy you did, because we were about to face two of these giant golems,” John gestured at the last of the shadows just as it began to fall over, “and that would have been too much.

“Mhm, let’s say I believe that,” Rodaclam said and blinked in a friendly way; “Anyway, you should leave the barrier. We will talk more later; unlike Rom, I am not all that keen on little dialogue games. For now, I have a certain Fateweaver to look after.”

John had just assumed that his familiars had informed everyone about the situation with Magoi, and it seemed like he had been correct in that. “Just one last question… is Eliza with you?”

Lydia perked up at that; depending on the answer there was a rather heavy talk incoming. “Yes,” Rodaclam answered and then flew off.

“Well, I have a lot to do then,” John said; he had a lot of unused Statpoints, one Skill Evolution, a good chunk of points to spend on his Artificial Spirits and said conversation to have. This battle was won already, and he had carried his fair share.

Time to deal with stuff that personally affected him. As he raised his arm to the sky, he heard Metra click her tongue, “Better give me something to fight soon.” He would also have to deal with her, apparently.

So much to do, and they were quickly approaching the fifth day of the war.