PoV Tsuitame
When I regained my senses, I found myself lying down on a couch. Valis was resting on top of me, tightly hugging my chest. My first instinct was to also wrap my arms around her head and gently pat her back.
"Is everything ok?" I asked while gently caressing the back of her head.
She was sobbing, and as soon as our eyes met, I saw that she was crying. I couldn't stand that sight, so I hugged her tightly and buried her face in my chest.
'There's a weird smell in the air.'
Then my older brother bolted out of a nearby room, throwing open the door with a kick. He didn't seem all that well, as he was limping, his fur was tainted with blood, and one of his eyes was shut.
Hannis: It's love! How cute.
'No it's-'
"Tsuitame, quick! Prepare me some clean water. I'm smelling blood. Maybe someone is still injured. " My brother shouted from outside the room.
And then he ran up the stairs without saying anything further. Instead, Valis buried her face in my fur and tightened her hug.
"You heard him, Valis. Can you-"
"No!" She responded by pouting.
"Hey, I really need to get up-" She then shut my mouth, closing it with both her hands.
To free myself, I simply started tickling her, and she quickly squirmed away.
"Time to go, Valis." I said this while I entered a random room in search of a bucket.
Now, back to the current time, Valis is sitting on my back, using a leather belt as a whip, and ordering me to do as many push-ups as she feels like.
'You were all lovey-dovey a minute ago. What happened?'
"Hi." said a female I had never seen before.
She had dark hair, her eyes looked similar to Valis's, she was taller than Valis, and she was a bit chubbier than her, but not by much.
"What's wrong, Seth?" said Diego.
He was still doing push-ups underneath me.
"I wanted to ask if I could... well... remain in human form a lot more from now on."
'Wait, is that one of his weapons?'
Hannis: Wait, really? Can I try to change forms as well?
'I doubt you have a shape-shifting ability, but we can try afterwards.'
"In that form?" He seemed perplexed.
"Ah, you're the girl tied up in his closet!" Valis shouted.
"I thought you couldn't bring back things from the stages; otherwise, we would've still had the weapons we gathered in the fourth stage."
Hannis: So is she not a weapon?
"No, she's most likely one of his weapons."
The room fell silent. Valis was looking at me weirdly while Diego was struggling to hold his laughter.
"Yeah, no problem." Diego responded after a while.
"So why were you tied up in the closet?"
"No, that was my mother." She awkwardly responded while biting her nails and looking away.
"Diego, you can go now." Said Valis.
He then suddenly fell on the ground, as if his arms had failed him. Valis almost fell again, so I used whatever aura was left inside my body to lay her body gently on the floor.
"Well then, I'm out." he said before using his ability to pass through my body, leaving most of his clothes except his socks under me.
As soon as he got out of the house, Valis started talking.
"What's wrong with him? Why does he always have to be naked?"
"Well-" I was trying to say something I don't quite remember anymore while getting up.
"Why were you punishing them?" asked for the weapon in the form of a woman.
"Diego abandoned us while he... he... he made me waste my points!" Valis answered.
"That seems a little un-"
"Shut it; why are you here anyway? Who are you?" Valis shouted at her.
In the meantime, she had gotten up and was staring down the new girl. She was emitting lots and lots of mana.
Hannis: Wow, the difference between the two is so huge, it's hard to believe they are part of the same species.
'What are you talking about?'
Hannis: Valis and Folarin, It took Valis maybe a dozen minutes to gather enough energy to fill this room at least ten times, while Folarin barely had any for herself.
I realized then that he could see mana. The next thing that popped up in my head was, "what about Diego and Forren then? Do they also use mana?"
"Tsui!" I heard a voice calling out my name, but I was too focused on my conversation with Hannis to give it much attention.
Hannis: They're weird. Most of Forren's regenerative capabilities are clearly borrowed from Diego, as they share a weird link with each other. Diego's power is definitely not the same as Valis's mana. Although they both have some form of supernatural power, I can clearly see them working in different ways.
'No shit, what I want to know is how it works and how to counter it.'
Hannis: All I can say is aim at the feet. He seems to struggle with spreading his power on his feet. Also, if you want to stop Forren's regeneration, you'll have to kill Diego first; otherwise, he'll just keep regenerating no matter what you do to kill him.
'This isn't-'
Valis brought me back to reality with a punch to the gut. It was clearly a blow she empowered using mana, as it left me gasping for air.
"Hey, are you finally back?" She asked while getting closer and checking my eyes.
"W-what do you mean?"
"Your pupils changed color, and you got all weird and stuff." She said this while also lifting my lips to check my teeth.
"I'm fine, I think." I tried to back away slowly, but she stopped me by putting her right foot on top of my left one.
"Anyway, back to what we were talking about. Can you do it for me?"
'Do what?'
My mind started wandering among all the possibilities. Was it something trivial like accompanying her or doing some chores in her stead? Was it something a bit more personal or something even more inti-
Hannis: You surely have a wild imagination, my guy.
'Shut it! Anyway, where's the other girl?'
I looked left and right, and there were no traces of her left, as if she had suddenly vanished.
"So I guess it's a no then." Valis looked a bit disappointed by her statement.
"No, it's just... Can you repeat the question, please?"
"I was asking if you could cut my hair short. They've grown a lot lately, and I wanted to cut them down to at least the level of my shoulders."
"But you look great with long hair." I replied-
She really does look great with long hair. Her pink hair really accentuates her cute features. Most days she would wear her hair in a long ponytail, but today she had gathered it in a long braid that reached her hips.
"Thanks! I'll cut them anyway, but thanks." She said, while smiling.
'That was cute.'
"Anyway, yes, I don't have much experience, but I will try my best."
She then hugged me once more.
"Thanks Tsui, thank you for everything."
"N-no problem, it was noth-"
She stopped me from talking with a headbutt.
"You almost died! Don't ever do that again!" She said, while pinching my skin.
"I'm sorry. I'll do my best from now on."
"Promise me."
"I promise."
PoV Diego
The water was nice and warm. Our house was sitting on top of a small island located on top of the floating ocean. If I looked deeply enough, I could see the planet beneath me go through some pretty rough changes. To my eyes, it looked like a massive, flaming chunk of magma.
I was lying on top of it naked, letting the current slowly carry me back to the land. The surrounding zone was perfectly safe for swimming. The more I tried to swim away, the stronger the current would get and immediately carry me back to the starting point.
'Those are pretty cool terraforming skills. That's to be expected from a god.'
Dubir: For how long are you going to look at it?
'I don't know, it impresses me no matter how long I keep looking at it, especially the fact that we aren't feeling the heat, or the fact that we can breathe with no problem even when we're so high up in the sky.'
Dubir: Yeah, that's magic. Mana can do lots and lots of things.
'Is that really the work of mana alone.'
Dubir: I don't fucking know, what kind of question is that? That's a god. I'm sure he has some arcane, otherworldly powers only available to gods.
'Sorry, that was not a question I really wanted an answer.'
Dubir: Soon, we'll start resuming your training. At this rate, you're going to die as soon as you meet another magical being.
"You really like to hurt my pride, huh?"
Dubir: I like to be realistic. At your current level, you're no more than trash. If it weren't for your cheap gimmick, you wouldn't even have defeated our previous holders.
'How cruel of you.'
Dubir: It's the truth.
We remained floating for a while in complete silence until...
"Diego, lunch is ready!" Said Forren with some clothes and a large towel in his hands.
"Thanks a lot."
My share was served in the kitchen; only Forren was eating there; the rest of the group had decided to eat in the living room that was located right behind the kitchen, in the back of the house.
PoV Nina
My lunch mainly consisted of overcooked, bland ribs, some toasted loaves of bread, and some stir-fried vegetables.
We didn't really know what was going on; everything happened so fast. One moment before, we were training with Kane; the next, he disappeared without a trace. Then Daniel appeared and sent us somewhere "safe," as if our house suddenly wasn't safe anymore.
Next thing we know, Daniel drops us off at the house of some random woman who reeks of alcohol. The smell was atrocious, and it was present in every corner of the house. Many glass bottles were scattered all around the house. Another thing probably worth mentioning was the fact that the house was incredibly dirty, with the ground floor smelling of piss.
This house belonged to someone Daniel trusted with ensuring our safety, a silver-haired beauty that could barely walk on her two legs because of how wasted she was.
We were all sitting inside a small room that only had a sofa and had the walls covered in photos of the girl, Kane, Daniel, Chris, and Hyung. Nassus appeared sometimes in some of the photos, and so did Hollis, but it was just a couple of times out of the hundreds of photos.
After a couple of minutes of running around her house, she got upset and decided to lock us in one of the cleaner rooms she had with herself.
She was currently trying to remain awake to keep an eye on us while at the same time using magic to keep the room illuminated and clean the floor.
Since we didn't really know what was going on, we simply sat all together on the sofa and stared at her until she started talking.
"By any chance... Can you... What's your name, sweeties" She said this while creating some visible strings of mana attached to the rooftop to keep her head up.
'Daniel, please, I want to go back home.'
Nobody responded. Manni and the new girl fell unconscious as soon as they got here. Marcus and John were probably too uncomfortable to answer. I, on the other hand, was praying to whatever god existed to make that woman drop dead or to make her disappear in some way.
"Curly hair, what's your name?"
Once again, no answer. Besides, none of us had curly hair. At least not anymore.
"Oi!" She shouted while getting visibly angry.
"You mean me?" asked Marcus while pointing at himself.
"No, not you, the little guy behind you."
"What?"
"Of course I meant you. Are you an idiot?"
'Aaargh, is there a way to get out of here?'
"Ehm… hey…" my voice was barely coming out while I was sweating out cold.
"Don't talk so loud!" She said this while covering her ears.
"Can I go to the bathroom?"
She remained silent for a bit, then laid her body on the ground and spoke.
"Sure, it should be somewhere on the second floor. If I remember correctly, the toilet is clogged. You can use the bathtub as a substitute."
Words cannot express the disgust I felt at that moment. Even Marcus and John looked extremely disgusted.
Unfortunately, as soon as I passed by her, she stopped me. She grabbed my hand and began to sniff it. Then her neck started to get longer and longer. It looked like the body of a snake.
"You smell familiar..."
She said this while coiling her neck around my body.
"By any chance, do you know Kane?"
I was terrified at that point. I couldn't talk; my muscles refused to move, and all I could muster was just a loud, high-pitched squeal.
"Do you know him?" She kept asking while tightening her grip.
Then she stopped. She released me and fled towards the furthest corner of the room, as if she saw some kind of monster.
"Daniel!" Marcus and John, filled with joy, screamed.
As I turned around, I saw that he was accompanied by Nassus as usual.
We all hugged him, and in the blink of an eye, we were all transported back to our rooms.