Last chapter, Amandeath and Elio were lying on the beach- with Amandeath hoping Elio would eventually talk to her, but she was forced to break the silence herself.

After bringing up Elio's past studies, he started to gush about one of his past inventions. This in turn made Amandeath gus- no, not doing that.

Anyways- Amandeath accomplished her goal with Elio, and afterwards had an argument with Karia about who was stronger between the two. Karia won without much difficulty- which made Amandeath decide that she'd get cybernetics as well, through the help of Quilline.

And now- the group has returned to the land of the living...

Seric's P.O.V.

"Well then, I hope you all enjoyed our little vacation, even if that simulation unrightfully took away our beach attire it seems... so be it I suppose." Metallic shouts as we all start standing back up again in the semi-small pure white candle lit main area inside of my boat. I look down and- yeah he's right, we're all back in our normal clothes again. Oddly I still feel full from eating in the simulation though... neat I guess, or I wonder if my brain's just confused? No clue.

"But! Now it's time to get back to business- Seric we'll talk after about the whole Kodan situation. But for now, Elio, let's go." Metallic commands as he grips Elio's arm after slipping his giant cloak on again.

"Huh? Oh- Marlox's computer, right... augh, yeah yeah give me a sec." Elio groggily responds, but Metallic pulls him along regardless towards the door leading outside of my ship, which Elio doesn't even try to fight this time- smart. He almost falls over though at first, poor guy.

"Ah ah ah- not so fast!" Oh- Quilline quickly steps in front of Metallic with a single step, and blocks the door off with her own giant body, having to lean down so that her head doesn't hit the ceiling of my boat. Metallic grits his teeth at that.

"We don't have time to waste here- what now woman?!" Metallic shouts- sheesh...

"Don't give me that. Remember why we decided to go on our digital-trip inside of Seric's lovely boat in the first place, Metallic? There could be a bunch of nasty goons waiting for us right outside. A low chance, but you never know. So as a show of loyalty to this crew, I'll be our scout and give us the all clear- and plus I have eyes at the back of my head so I wouldn't miss much, literally. Ha!" Quilline finishes her reality check to us with a laugh, which I hate to admit but I do appreciate her experience in... being a criminal I guess? As awful as that sounds, we need it- even Amandeath can't catch everything for us.

"...I could do the protecting just fine until you came along... but fine, go." Metallic says, which makes Quilline nod and spin around to open the door a pinch. She leans down a bit more to peak outside, and then after a second she slips outside of the door so quickly that it gives me goosebumps- it's almost like she's a snake- sheesh.

...

...

No one says a word, but we can hear Quilline's footsteps outside.

...

"You think she's setting up a trap for us?" Karia whispers to me which makes me jump- she slips her hand over my mouth right after that.

"Oh- in case I screamed or something, smart." I think to myself, then reply to Karia,

"Doubt it- Amandeath's logic for bringing Quilline into our group makes sense, she has bigger fish to fry than us, and she needs us to fry those fish too. ...We can ask Metallic to go out first regardless, though." I reply as I glance up at Karia, she bobs her head in uncertainty, then finally nods.

...

...

The door swings open,

"There were a few people outside- I discarded them very quickly though, don't worry." Quilline says with a stern face which makes me start to panic, shit my stupid flames are about to come out of my fingertips again- 

"Um-"

"Kidding, I'm kidding! I'd be far more bloody and happy if there were any bad boys and girls here who were bold enough to challenge me. All clear, lucky us." Quilline says with a smile as she holds the door open for us while standing outside, which makes me sigh in relief. My flames start to retreat into my body at the same time.

Thankfully without asking, Metallic walks out first with Elio- and then Amandeath goes out after him. Me and Karia wait a few more seconds, just to make sure it's safe... I do feel bad for making Amandeath a "guinea pig" for us too though.

"Hmmm? What's the deal? If I weren't good at scouting, I would've been taken down a while ago you know. Or I suppose you may think I'm lying to you about how safe it is outside, can't blame you, even if it is mean." Quilline says with a raised eyebrow and frown as she looks at us with her glowing green eyes.

I shrug and start to walk forwards- but Karia speed walks in front of me instead.

"Nice of her." I think to myself, since I'm assuming that was her showing that she'd be willing to take a trap for me.

"Annnd back to reality." I think to myself with a mental frown as I walk outside onto my boat's deck, and am met with the dark, abandoned, and gloomy apartment building floor we set up my boat inside. More specifically, we parked the boat in the middle of this floor's tight hallway that has a bunch of doors on each side of us. Of course my boat broke through the walls to the left and right of us though.

Anyways- it worked out so I'm not complaining.

"Whaaaaat the fuck- you all see that or am I tripping?" Amandeath says as she hops out of my boat's main deck and starts to scuttle around us to look around for something- huh?

"Yes- Quilline, now is not the time for hide and go seek! I need you here to protect my pals when I'm gone!" Metallic exclaims- and I start to look around too, what the hell- she is gone. Her jokes are starting to annoy me.

"I don't think she's hiding, I saw her disappear and she can't teleport herself- fuckity fuck get back in the boat everyone." Amandeath commands as she hops back onto the boat, but before we can even move- 

*BOOM!*

I hear an explosion come from beneath us, which makes my boat tip backwards-

"Did someone take out the floor?!" I think to myself and get proven right as we all start to get dumped out of my boat that's now tipping back at a vertical angle, and we free fall for a bit as we fall through the massive hole in the floor we're on- until we slam onto the carpeted floor one level below us- shit!

"Wait- it could fall on us!" I think to myself as the rest of our crew minus Elio spring up and get ready to fight, and I glance up to see that my boat is... floating in midair? Or no- I squint, and see that a bunch of silver things are pushing against it. Mini robots maybe?

"You would've let the boat crush us if you wanted us dead- what do you want, whoever the fuck you are?" Amandeath confirms my thoughts, that's a relief... somewhat, blue flames are still pouring out of my fingertips though.

"Hi, I never wanted to see you all again but- the bosses orders are the bosses orders." A womans voice says, and I glance around and stop- as I can see a woman with tanned skin and frizzy hair wearing a tight black uniform standing across the hallway from us. 

"Invisibility or teleportation- she definitely wasn't there a second ago. And again?" I think to myself, I don't recognize her...

But Metallic shouts, "Oh- it's Y.O.U. magic girl! Get lost you annoyance! We already told you, we're not taking your deal so-"

*BOOM- CRASH!*

In a split second, Metallic somehow gets picked up by someone who appeared out of thin air with a flash of electricity, and the stranger slams his body into the wall next to us at a speed I can barely comprehend! Metallic falls to the floor- but it doesn't end there as a blinding flash of blue light sends him flying up and crashing through the ceilings above us- holy shit I think he got launched outside and into the damn sky!

"Fucking scrap metal, watch your tongue around her! ...Ah- he's already gone. So be it, actions will speak louder than words in this case. Well- back to business. Congratulations you all, you picked the hard route. I hope you have fun in the circus you created for yourselves clowns, I WAS going to work with you all if you had just accepted my wife's offer to leave Quilline for dead. But no- you wanted to suffer." The person teleports next to the woman, and dusts himself off.

I get a closer look at the light-skinned man to see that he has slim red metal gauntlets over his arms, and is wearing a thick red long-sleeved turtle-neck shirt, and a pair of navy blue jeans that match his navy blue hair.

"Guessing ya aren't here to kill us so- mind saving our robot friend Metallic? Maybe?" Amandeath has the balls to ask-

"...He will be fine- alive at least, I just disciplined that disrespectful SHIT is all. And if you're expecting him to use the Emperor form in order to do something here, I can promise you- that isn't happening. So- introductions. I'm already very familiar with you all, but you all of course have no clue who I am- call me William. I'm here to discuss, and enforce- your future plans." The man says as he strokes his beard with a sigh. 

"Just a heads up Seric and Karia- no way in hell can we fight this, the girl alone was able to take down Quilline before. And this guy is obviously even stronger..." Amandeath says which makes shivers run down my spine.

"He's about my height... that's new." I note for some reason.

"See Amandeath- I told you taking Quilline in was a bad idea, I fucking told you!" Elio shouts as he shoves her across the hall, but in retaliation Amandeath steps back towards him- and quickly shoves her fingers into his side at that. He falls over and gasps in pain- pressure point I guess... what's even going on anymore?

The man, or William sighs- "And the circus continues. By the way, Elio, if you were expecting me to take you in still as a friend, I rescind my prior offer. You're as dirty as the rest of the filth here after all, having sex with a woman as awful as Amandeath proved that you have no class, simulation or not. And that's not even talking about the issues with her body... just thinking about that list makes me want to gag." He finishes as he literally spits onto the floor- how would he even know that though?

"Yeah- well, fuck you too then." Elio coughs out, dumbass!

"Wait- wait, I'm sorry I didn't mean it- I was just in pain!" Elio comes to his senses and finally pleads for mercy as he falls to his knees, but the man only twitches his fingers and blinks in response.

"Babe- not telling you to stop, but just think this through, ok?" The "magic" woman as Metallic called her asks as she puts a hand on William's shoulder.

"Did it work?" I think to myself but step back just in case, and Karia does too. We can't really try to fight them to save Elio here... Amandeath has the courage to stand in front of Elio though.

"Spare him? Plea-"

"Shit!" Karia shouts as countless bullets start to ear piercingly pour through the wall next to Elio, and right into his body as blood splatters out of him and all over Amandeath. The dust of the walls being shot down make it impossible to see after a second though- damn!

"Need to protect her!" I think to myself, but before I can even run in front of Karia- she runs to me instead and starts to say something while spinning around- and suddenly a see through purple cloak appears from thin air which Karia wraps around us both.

"Oh- her cloak of aegis!" I remember the ability, right she got that from Bersia- it's like a 360 degree shield. But... the other two...

...

Finally, the gunshots come to a halt. And a second later, the dust gets blown away- in particular right into our faces which hurts my eyes and forces me to close them.

"Idiot." William curses, and after I open my eyes again I can see Amandeath lying on the ground with her hands over her head- which is good, she seems ok. But... Elio's lying in a pool of his own blood, and isn't moving at all... fucking- jeez, his body's almost unrecognizable. I'm... oh Habram help us, I think his legs got shot off entirely.

"Rest in peace... or- nevermind." Is all I think to myself as my blue flames start to pour out of my fingers at an even faster rate, and tears start to well up in my eyes as I struggle to make sure I don't drip onto my or Karia's bodies. Thankfully she drops her hide of Aegis which lets me step away from her.

"Eli- oh..." Amandeath says as she kicks herself back up and turns around, only to have a dead look on her face after seeing Elio's state. She shakes her head though, and crouches down to him and flips his body over- oh no- is he still alive? I sure hope he isn't still suffering.

"Now then- where were we Taylis?" William says as he looks towards the woman- o-or Taylis I guess...