John barely dodged away when the crystal claws swiped by his face. “It was just a joke!” he exclaimed, struggling to find his footing. The reaction to his explanation was a simple prolonged hissing sound.

Siena fell down to all fours. Her silver-blue skin turned black and purple, shadows rising off her like a dark mist. The constellation covering her hands, feet and the tip of her tail spread all over, silver dots connected through thin lines, all dimmed by the flowing darkness. Only her eyes stuck out like a fog light, silver-white rather than their old sulfuric yellow. Her silky, purple hair followed her movements as if she was underwater.

It was an equally frightening and alluring sight.

“I am not,” the moonshade elemental screeched in a very untypical fit of genuine rage. “A pair.” Her tail waved, but the sharp tip stayed aimed at John’s face the whole time. The motion reminded John of a bizarre mixture of cat and scorpion. “Of SHOES!”

During yesterday’s testing, John had also asked Siena to switch into her newly acquired item form for the first time. The result had been exactly what Siena currently denied, a pair of shoes. Very elegant, black shoes, whose midnight black leather would have fit brilliantly to the rest of his Schattengarn outfit. John found it quite fitting, given that the shadow spirit’s feet were themselves formed like high heels. The only other elemental that naturally wore shoes was Sylph, and she could take hers off.

Siena’s pride, however, had taken more than a small hit by the revelation that she was footwear. Within the second of recognizing the fact, she had switched back to her normal shape and then angrily hissed and stabbed at everyone who dared to do as much as mention it. A mistake that John now had repeated while getting dressed for the day.

Just a few careless words and John getting dressed for the day turned into a very angry Tier 4 elemental tearing at the bedroom carpet. In a surrendering fashion, John raised his hands. “I’m sorry,” he stated, looking her deep into the eyes. “I didn’t mean to insult you. I was just having a bit of fun at your expense.”

“I am not shoes!” Siena yapped again, while her Unleashed state faded away. “I am not!” In John’s defence, hearing the usually sultry and innuendo loving smooth-talker reduced to grumbling snaps was strangely adorable. It occurred to him that this desire to see women (or people in general) in states like this was the main reason that men got into trouble so often.

“Correction.” John’s head flew towards the bed, where a naked Beatrice was cleaning her master’s morning load off her chest. He was sending her very obvious signals to shut up, both mentally and through gestures, but the passive maid just continued talking. “You are a potential pair of shoes.”

Siena was once more engulfed in dark mist. “Be quiet, you useless kitchen appliance!”

“Statement,” Beatrice began, still ignoring all of John’s warnings. “I would be a general household appliance. I am not useless, my meals still supply the necessary nutrition. I can prepare ingredients either way. Better than you can, and you have knives for fingers.” All of the sass was delivered in the usual straight and passive tone. “Conclusion: your insult is weak. Much like your resolve to serve Master.”

“Cease your chatter already!” Siena was back to hissing, what little progress had been made already reverted. The only difference was that her tail was now pointing at Beatrice, who failed to take any of this seriously. Instead, she sucked a scooped up drop of John’s cum off her index finger. “I hate the very concept of being worn already, being on his feet and used to tread the ground with is beyond degrading!”

“Clarification needed: you do admit to being potential shoes?” Beatrice asked and only got a very dangerous growl as her answer. The kind of sound that was only ever given as a last warning. It was at this moment that Stirwin walked in.

The juvenile crocodile was as big as the Light Island allowed him to be, a state that he held about half of the time. At this specific moment, as far as John was aware, he held it because he could have a bigger breakfast this way. “Rave said she felt a disturbance in the harem and sent me to look… lazy as she is,” Stirwin reported.

“I CAN HEAR YOU!” John’s girlfriend shouted from the living room.

“Ironic joke,” Beatrice spoke up again. “You and Stirwin have the same potential…”

“For the love of God, Beatrice,” John whined, seeing where this was going. “Stop!”

There was a moment of silence in the strained bedroom. A confused infinity elemental, an angry shadow spirit, a concerned Gamer and an uncaring maid all existing in a moment of disharmony. Then, suddenly, the last of that list continued, ignoring her master’s order by uttering two simple words. “Crocodile leather.”

Stirwin let out a short, shocked squeal in response to that, sounding nothing like his size would have made one think. Siena’s response, however, was exactly what John had anticipated. With another hiss, she flew up the bed and at Beatrice, the two of them engaging in a bout. The Gamer was ready to jump in at first, but realized immediately that the moonshade elemental had withdrawn her claws.

As serious as the fight looked in the first moment, both sides were pulling their punches. Knowing that they wouldn’t hurt each other, John closed his wardrobe and walked away. “Join us for breakfast when you got it out of your system,” he simply told them.

The living room already smelled like pancakes, sparing John the question what was for breakfast. Most of the girls were dressed this morning, a rarity spurred by the fact that the Gamer himself had thrown on clothes after the morning routine of morning blowjob to shower sex to bedroom sex had concluded. Granted, that last step was more improvised than normal, but John had needed to take a look at some of his normal clothes today.

The sole reason was that he was going over to his parents’ place in a bit and he didn’t want to do so in his Chosen attire. Those two items could pass as normal in principle, but John felt like he was inviting trouble if he spent several hours with his parents in those clothes. Better to just wear something mundane.

“I barely fit into this shirt anymore,” he had to remark, causing Rave to look up at him.

“Hamena hamena hamena,” was her genuine reaction upon checking things for herself. Since he had gained a tremendous amount of muscle since buying these shirts for his previously thin, lanky body, he now filled it out completely. It was almost so tight one could see his toned physique through the cloth, but only almost. If it had been that bad, John would have had to change into something he could actually breathe in. Cheap gaming shirts, the kind John could afford before all of this, were not known for their stretchiness.

The Gamer turned around posing a little bit in his pants, equally tight. The belt around his waist was purely decoration, he no longer needed it for his clothes to stay at the appropriate height. Although he personally found his ass unremarkable, on his girlfriend, it had a nice effect.

“Just go on like that and we will ruin these clothes!” she exclaimed, pausing the video she was watching on the TV to attend breakfast. Said clothes were a somewhat fancy white blouse and stretchy, baby blue jeans. “And I don’t have much else I can wear outside of that.”

“I would have a solution for that,” John stated, looking at the clock. They were supposed to be over at his parents in the early afternoon and it was barely past seven at the moment. Since there was next to no travel time to Washington DC, courtesy of the teleporter standing at the White House, they were in absolutely no hurry. “So, we have the time, just saying.”

“Hnnnnngh,” Rave couldn’t resist at least slapping her boyfriend’s ass in passing. “Gimme kiss,” she whined in poor grammar, and leaned up to him. Happily, he obliged. Then they went over to where the first meal of the day would soon be served.

Well, first meal in their case. Sitting on the table, reading news on her phone, Lydia looked up to greet him, “A good morning, my love.”

“Good afternoon,” he wished her, while sitting down in the chair next to hers. Once properly seated, he gave her a good morning kiss as well. “At least the time zones align properly for this meeting, huh?” Over in Germany, it must have been about 13 o’clock right now. Although this was on the late end of the scale for lunch, it was still in the range and so the queen must have decided to take her meal over here.

“It is a minor convenience, indeed,” Lydia agreed, sipping from the tea that always surrounded her when she was around Aclysia. “Having the luxury of your head maid’s cooking every day will prove beneficial to my overall work morale, even if I lose half an hour of work to sitting around idly.”

“Well, I hope you have some more flexible days.” John winked, placing a hand on her upper thigh.

“Today has proven to be quite flexible,” the auburn-haired woman let him know, before finishing her cup. “Rex Germaniae and the empire at large are going through a relaxed period. The initial reforms have been passed, structures adjusted and the budget for the rest of the year has been allocated to all member states, negotiations having been concluded.” She reached out and placed her right hand on his neck. “I find only the day to day running of my states to busy myself with at home.”

“How fortunate that Fusion and I are approaching such a similar state of internal stability.” His voice trailed off into a whisper, while they leaned towards each other. “In a time without major threats and spreading prosperity, what are two rulers at the peek of their youth to do with their free time?”

“We aren’t at the peak yet, John,” Lydia reprimanded him in a tone as soft as gold. Which was only soft in comparison to the steel she normally clad her words with, admittedly. “We aren’t even twenty yet, not truly.” The last part was in likely reference to the time they had spent in time dilation. As aging progressed normally within those spaces, in terms of their bodies, they may have been closer to their twenties than their birthdates implied.

John didn’t feel like calculating that at the moment, instead bridging the paper-thin distance between their lips for a second kiss. A more fervent one this time, their tongues intertwining in a loving contest. His fingers dug into the softness of her thighs and her hand on his neck made clear she wasn’t going to let him go anytime soon. John could still taste the tea on her lips. It was quite bitter today, a variant of black tea, most likely.

More warmth encapsulated him when his girlfriend embraced him from the other side. Purring, Rave nibbled on his ear. “I’m here too, ya know, tiger?” she seductively complained and caused John to slowly part with Lydia’s lips to go back to the peppermint sweetness of the Lightbearer.

Banging her fist on the table, a doubtlessly envious Eliza made her presence known. “For the love of all cumbuckets in the galaxy, cease and fucking desist!” she demanded. “At least until I had my fucking breakfast!?”

“Hmmm.” John did her the favour to pause momentarily, although Lydia and Rave stayed attached to him. Both now had their arms wrapped around him. Trying to distract himself, he looked over to the open kitchen. Aclysia was one of the girls that had not yet gotten dressed for the day, not properly anyway. Wearing nothing but an apron, she was flipping pancakes and stacking them on several plates, worthy of a meal that would go to over a dozen people. There was also the seductive smell of bacon. “How much longer until breakfast is ready?” John asked. The sight of the weaponized maid’s naked back did not help get his mind on other tracks.

“It will be ten more minutes until I have prepared everything, Master,” Aclysia reported quickly, smiling over her shoulder. “Do feel free to use the table in other fashions until and even beyond then.”

“Tempting…” John said and then groaned lustfully when Rave pressed her full lips against his neck and gave him a short-lived hickey. Before he did any of that, he wanted to get his day in order, that was what the breakfast talks were for. “Alright, so, anything to do today that bears mention outside of visiting my parents?”

“Don’t think so,” Rave answered, but she was not exactly a reliable source. Aware of that herself, she turned her head to the bedroom door and shouted. “BAE? What does John have to do today? Like, important stuff outside of visiting Ben and Bren?”

The aggressive pillow fight noises from the bedroom ceased for a moment. Then the robotic voice of the passive maid offered a simple answer, “Statement: aside from the aforementioned scheduled activity, this Sunday offers only emergency paperwork.”

‘Thank God that Sundays are days off even in the Abyss,’ John thought. The want for a scheduled free day had infested the amalgam of shadow societies at some point in the past two millennia. With the amount of new people raised by mundane parents that went into the Abyss with every generation, it was no wonder certain things were assimilated into it with time. The fact that most Abyssals still spent a good chunk of time in the real world helped, without a doubt. “Are you tagging along?” he asked Lydia.

“While my free time is more flexible, it is limited regardless. Too limited for the hours dedicated to that visit,” she sighed and moved her chair a little bit closer. “Truly saddening, I find your parents to be pleasingly mundane and quirky, at the same time.”

“Well, how about I make this up to you in other ways, then?” John suggested, his hand sliding up her thigh just as his right went between Rave’s legs from behind, groping ass and pressing into her cunt at the same time.