The question cascaded. The usually relaxed evening get-together was spontaneously replaced with the harettes making their way to the I.D. Gate under the cover of Nightingale’s shadow. Reason for that was twofold. One, Lu Zhi wanted to remain obscured and, two, none of them put their clothes back on.
It was late, it was dark, and thus Nightingale’s powers as goddess of the night were at their strongest. Easy enough to cross the short distance between I.D. Gate and Palace. Once inside, Lee put together a vast landscape of various bios mashed together, all of it carpeted in ruined buildings, themselves half-covered by vegetation. It looked like a screenshot out of an AAA ga.
A good place for the various won of John’s harem to clash and, incidentally, also a good place for him to deal with the newest Lover Class Challenge. He had to sneak a kiss in with each woman without them seeing it coming. A fact that he kept quiet.
“For the sake of Lee’s mana, I’d ask that you keep environntal destruction to a minimum,” John made the rules for the ensuing clash. “Also, I will remind all of you that Lulu does not benefit from the Friendly Fire Protection, as she is neither marked nor part of the Federation. Fateweaving would still-“
“It’s fine, I won’t fight tonight,” Lu Zhi raised her voice. “We have a matter that we wish to talk to you about, President of Fusion.”
John raised an eyebrow, then slowly nodded. “I’ll leave the Creator Puppet here,” he said, gesturing at his third body.
“You’re partaking in this fight?” Nathalia asked.
“Why not?” he asked with a smirk. “It’s entertaining enough and limit testing myself is a good way to spend the night. I should be fine even without Particle Skin. The Friendly Fire will kick in automatically before we do aningful harm to each other.”
Disabling the Friendly Fire Protection was, as with so many magical things, a matter of intent. The chanic was disabled when they sparred but would kick back in unless they actually ant to kill each other.
“Simple rules, you have two minutes to scatter out, then I will cast Skyfall. Once the star touches the ground, it’s a free for all. This is the safe area, whoever dwells here isn’t involved in the fight.” He gestured at the plain green ring they stood in. A clear difference from the ruins all around.
Structure of the fight given, all those that wanted to participate scattered out. Apparently John’s harem was in a brawling mood, as the only ones who remained were Scarlett, Lee and Lulu. Even such non-combat mbers as Delicia and Lorelei had decided to throw their hat into the fight.
“This would have been a good opportunity to test the new AM model.” Scarlett put a hand on her hips and turned her head. “Do I get anything toda-“
John stopped her by grabbing the back of her head and suddenly pulling her into a kiss. Shock made her rigid for a mont, then she lted into his embrace. Her tongue reciprocated the advance of his. Then, he broke it, leaving her gasping.
“What was tha-“ she began to ask, only for John to suddenly turn to Lulu. The smirking empress was surprised by the speed at which this happened. The Creator Puppet was a lot faster than John’s regular body, fast enough to catch the empress’ lips before she could prepare herself. After tasting the erald of her mouth, getting the surprise kiss with Lee in was pretty easy. The gar girl was like a deer in headlights, shocked despite what obviously ca next.
That was 3 down.
“Alright!” John raised his voice, preventing any questions. “What did you want to talk about, Lulu?”
A series of shockwaves washed over the land. Skyfall was the first one, slamming into the ground with minor power. Imdiately after it were the many impacts of two or more harettes clashing. The more violently minded won of John’s harem had not sought to hide themselves, instead waiting eagerly while staring at each other. The last shockwave that echoed through the ruins was that of Thana awakened.
It appeared that Eliza and Thana were aligned in wanting to let loose. Given that fact, John wasn’t too worried about it all. The human half of the failed goddess would rein in the genocidal entity, should things go too far. That was the theory and, given how much the level difference had diminished by now, John was willing to test the practice.
Lu Zhi pulled a scroll out of her pocket dinsion. It was every bit as decorated as a scroll from the royal house of China was expected to be. A layer of dark red cloth protected the rolled up paper. The ends were ornate pieces of green jade, carved to resemble the claws of Tianlong. The claws had been painted black and sculpted with such care that John could see ridges of horn. “If anyone asked, you got this from a royal ssenger,” she stated. “It would be improper for the empress to deliver her own mail, even to a rumoured lover.”
The Gar took the scroll and held it for a second. The earth shook heavily. Sowhere in the battlefield, his true body had just managed to kiss Eliana on the lips. Sothing she had responded to with a Seismic Step. Once the tremors had reduced to the constant, light trembling of Nathalia and tra clashing, he broke the wax seal on the scroll.
The paper within was of the finest quality. A mild gold tinge shimred through the white and it slled of fresh sap. “Made from one of your tributed trees,” Lulu inford him.
“What a strange way to find its way back to ,” Joh humd and looked at the ssage. He recognized the calligraphy of the woman before him. For all of her tomboy attitudes, the empress was still exactly that and thus had honed herself in all manners of court life.
John struggled to read it anyhow. The script used predated simplification and even standardization. Previous to Mao’s Cultural Revolution, similar ones may have been used in traditional communities that traced themselves back to a mber of the imperial court. Now, it likely was only the Forbidden City that still used it.
It took John a few seconds to go over the ssage and put together what signs he did not know via context clues. Luckily for him, the ssage was simple and the recipient difficult to offend. “An invitation to visit and stay at the Forbidden City?” he asked, just to be certain.
Lu Zhi nodded, one of her eyes closed in a mischievous gesture. “None would say that such closeness is improper between our nations now. The nobles of my court have picked up the scent of our affair and are now attempting to find the trail. I believe it best to show them a direction to follow.”
“Slowly boiling that frog.” John carefully rolled the scroll back up. “I do owe your nation for the aid provided in ferrying the Aztecs across…”
“Such is the opinion of the commoners,” Lu Zhi agreed. “To arrive in humility and grace would ingratiate yourself to our people.”
John turned his brainpower to the battle for a mont. With Magus Step, he could spring his surprise on quite a few won. One after another, he had smooched the maids. Catching Sylph was a difficult affair, especially since the speed demon was in a match against Siena. Streaks of darkness and electricity bounced between the buildings. Nightingale swooping out of a cloud of imperception allowed him to pin down the bunny and claim her lips. Harpy and midnight elental quickly followed.
‘Two more difficult targets,’ John thought, turning his scheming thoughts to Rave and Lorelei. One was in his mind, the other was a seer. Everyone else was just dangerous to approach. “I’ll have to check my schedule….”
On wings of grey and hatred, the keeper of his schedule landed. Sword at the ready, her feet caught the heavy dive by bending. She stopped just short of her left knee touching the ground, then rose again. Ehtra always preferred to land in a manner that John would describe as intense. That her huge breasts smacked nakedly against each other in the process added an erotic note to it.
“The week of the 4th of November is free,” the secretary told him.
“So right after Justinian leaves the office.” John rubbed his chin. “I believe I can do that. A foreign mission with a teleporter around the corner should be acceptable to the elites. Plus, I’ll leave most of the girls and my extra bodies here.” He weighed the scroll in his hand. “Do I keep this or is it customary to return it?”
“To keep it would an that you view the invitation as a once in a lifeti honour, to return it signals that you deem yourself important enough to be invited again,” Lu Zhi swiftly inford him of the traditions at play.
“So, I will return it when you receive in the Forbidden City?” John asked and Lu Zhi nodded. “Alright.” He put the scroll away. Elsewhere, he managed to sneak a kiss onto Rave’s lips. A complicated surprise, sprung onto his feline fiancée after she had been sparring with Eliana for several minutes.
The battles all around the city were only escalating further. Ehtra returned to the fray with a beat of her wings. While John’s personal quest to get kisses was slowing events down here or there, by and large the harem was fighting itself with growing ferocity. Powers were thrown and then matched or slightly exceeded. It was the sa phenona as people gradually raising their voices to remain audible in a crowded room.
John eventually found Lorelei. The seer was engaged in a lee with Salamander, of all won. The apocalypse elental was going easy on her opponent. She kept herself to two arms and one weapon, a sword with regular length, and kept herself at a moderate pace on top of that. It allowed the seer to duck and weave elegantly and even land a few futile punches.
Lorelei wasn’t weak and, without her armour on, Salamander did feel the impact. Lorelei did also lack anything that gave those attacks an extra oomph. The unknowing observer would have thought that the seer was running rings around Salamander. In reality, this fight was over the mont the fire spirit decided to employ her true speed or any of her many, many variants of area attacks.
There was a tinge of worry still from watching Lorelei use her second sight so actively. Generally speaking, John considered the issue of her going truly blind solved. Since strong Varnik’s had maintained their gift for longer and Lorelei was at least 600 levels above the strongest one that was on record, it stood to reason that she would keep her gift either forever or for a very, very, very long ti. They were still looking for guaranteed permanent solutions though, just without urgency. Until he had it, he would always feel slightly worried.
John waited for a mont when Lorelei was particularly engaged in an offensive, then swooped in with Magus Step. The seer squeaked in surprise when she suddenly found herself lifted, draped across his arms like a princess. The kiss followed before she could make proper sense of the situation.
After he had cleared that condition, he moved on to get the kisses of the remaining won one after another. Once he had achieved that, he headed back to the safe spot with all three of his bodies. He had had his adventure.
The ruin-scape had beco truly ruined over the course of the battle. It was like seeing an ancient city marked by several waves of carpet bombings, except the charges detonated were everything between strange shrapnel and ice explosions. The battle eventually reached its fever-pitch, then the won stread back to the safe spot one after another over the course of forty minutes. tra, Rave and Nathalia were the last ones to return.
“You might ask yourself why I kissed you all over the course of this fight,” he addressed all of them.
“’Cause we cute?” Rave suggested.
“Accurate, but I had a greater reason: that was the Class Challenge, so let’s get that next Lover’s level.”
“Please get the Submissive Mark, please,” Scarlett muttered a prayer. “I know you can fucking hear , Gaia; if it’s not on the selection, I’ll make sure you regret it.”
John wondered how she would do that, but he prioritized opening the window.
“You’re getting your wish,” John told Scarlett. All of these were repeat choices and as much as he wanted all of them, Submissive Lover’s Will was the best choice here. Once he had selected it, he waited to see who of his whole harem would be affected. He had a hunch that Eliana would be among them – and he was proven correct.
The pretty little psycho grinned ear to ear. Her hips were thrust forwards, so she could look past her moderately sized breasts and at the deep blue, almost black mark as it changed on her. Hands frad the mark, as if she was trying to make the changes go even deeper than the mark did baseline.
Like the Wild Mark, the Submissive version sprouted an additional pair of swirls. These lines stretched to the side, rather than diagonally, and curved without any thorns added to them. A circle appeared within the centre heart, a symbol like an empty ovum awaiting fertilization.
“Yessssss,” Scarlett hissed. The new version of the mark had also appeared on her lower abdon, leaving her visibly aroused. John wasn’t sure if that was because of the extra Libido or if she was just thinking about the money she could now print. Effectively he had just handed her an endless, personal source of mundane and low-magic tals.
Also marked were Lee, Lorelei and Hailey. Only the last of them had John feel a minor amount of surprise. Minor was the operative word there. A power bottom was still a bottom.
Left were Gno, Lydia, Nia, Nightingale and Undine. A selection of won that John thought ‘Mindful’ applied to quite well, in their individual ways. In all due likelihood, that ant he was done with the special marks with the next Perk.
What would be next after that?
He was excited to find out.
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