Monday evening, Jack, Aclysia and Beatrice entered the Death Zone. The maids had their teleport bound to John, so they could get back out whenever. All three were carrying hidden cameras. John was still on edge. Whatever phenomenon was doing the seemingly impossible to cover such a huge amount of land with a teleportation spell could, maybe, find a way to intercept even the maids’ teleportation. So far, only a barrier put up by Gaia had shown that capability. Because it was so unlikely, John was willing to take that risk but, because it was a possibility at all, he was nervous about it.

Tuesday evening, he and the rest of the harem joined the rest of the army in their deployment to the Death Zone border. Parliament had obliged John’s demands in a single sitting. People that had grown up knowing of this space in which people disappeared were intimidated enough by the prospect of expansion that they did not care for political games. A number of more loyal (or fanatic) members voiced their disagreement with John leading the charge. Just like the advisor, they backed down when John firmly told him his plans. From there, it was smooth sailing on the administrative front.

Fusion’s army, only reaching into the high hundreds, could never cover the entirety of the border in any satisfying capacity. They watched over population centres and the direct routes of transportation, such as highways and train stations, using aura sight. That would at least let them spot anyone moving in suspiciously or anyone living in the area that hadn’t yet gotten the news. Whether they evacuated or not was up to them, but the information had to be distributed.

By Wednesday noon, the only thing of importance that had happened anywhere was that they had agreed on the positions the soldiers should retreat to during the first scheduled retreat from the expanding Death Zone. They also decided to look for volunteers that would stay behind to test whether the Death Zone truly was expanding further. John hoped that these sacrifices wouldn’t even be necessary, but it was better to have a plan C.

Plan A was, after all, completely eventless. Jack and the maids had been inside the borders for about two days at that point and there had been no interferences. This made the meeting John had planned for that day rather short. However, given that the searching party of soldiers had also persisted for three days, he did not think this unusual yet.

Thursday came and passed, however, and still nothing happened inside the Death Zone. Outside, however, things were getting more difficult. Several soldiers disappeared along the border, despite keeping up with the drafted retreat schedule. In other words, the expansion was accelerating. Time was growing shorter.

On Friday morning, John made his resolution. “We are going in,” he said to the people in the war room. “Me and my girls.” With a glance at the three members of the Magoi family, he added. “Excluding Scarlett and Lee, of course.”

Despite now being a field camp, the gathering was much larger. Rather than contain primarily members of the military apparatus, the planning now also incorporated the Fateweavers, a select few of the special forces under Nia, as well as a sizable selection of members of parliament (mostly from the House of Exceptionals).

“This whole affair is ruining our honeymoon phase,” Lee grumbled, only realizing that everyone could hear her when the giggles started to cut through the otherwise sombre atmosphere. She looked like she had more to add, but was unwilling to do it in front of all of these people.

They hadn’t stopped in their exercise to make Lee able to take what he was dishing out. As a matter of fact, that, in addition to the usual engagements, was the primary way John was dealing with the stress of these days. It was true though that what should have followed their official getting-together, being at least a week of cuddling, dates, and relaxed evenings, had been put entirely on ice because of this urgent matter.

“Should I gather additional forces?” Nia asked, gesturing towards Alice. If anyone would be able to support John’s assault, it would be the select few individuals with powerful Innate Abilities the pariah commanded.

John shook his head. “No. All of us going in will have to be enough. For all we know, their plan is to trap all of our elites and then take out our backline. We need capable fighters to stand in defence or to carry on the legacy if we don’t make it out.”

“And he trusts me with that.” Alice’s laugh sounded empty, as she took a bow. “Then, Mister President, I shall not disappoint.”

“You won’t have an opportunity to disappoint me, I’ll make it out of whatever is getting thrown at me,” the Gamer declared and rolled his neck. “Chemilia, you have supreme command over the army in my absence. Magoi, you will oversee the administration’s transition according to constitutional instructions, should I manage to get myself killed.”

“Understood.” Chemilia nodded with militaristic firmness.

Magoi just sighed, “I’ll be very mad if you die, you are aware, yes?”

‘Hooking up with your daughter only to die a couple days later would be in very bad taste, yeah.’ John kept what he wanted to say quiet, not wanting to embarrass Lee or delay things unnecessarily. “I won’t leave you with all of that work, don’t you worry,” he said instead and then knocked twice on the table while getting up. “Continue the planning without me. Assume me MIA after four days without contact and likely dead after a month. That’s all.”

The people around nodded, saluted or shouted in whatever way they saw appropriate to show their respect. John left and those present of his harem closely followed, to meet with the rest outside. Lydia was, of course, missing. He could do nothing more for her than to send her a text message for the moment.

That left two other girls he had to say goodbye to. “Really sorry that this is how we start-off our relationship,” he started with Lee.

“Yeah, didn’t exactly imagine that you would go and storm the literal Death Zone the week after.” Lee’s tone was joking, painting over the distress underneath. “Thought I would at least get to marry you before I become awful enough that you would do a deliberate suicide charge into hell to get away from me. I can’t get a divorce settlement like this.”

John laughed and leaned down, brushing her dark hair behind her ear, and then kissed her. It was a short tender kiss and it was still long enough for Lee to reach up to his sleeve and grip his suit with all the strength she had. “I won’t leave you,” he promised.

“You better mean that…” she mumbled, the distress now fully exposed.

He hugged her while he looked at Scarlett. The technomancer calmly put away the lighter she had just used to ignite her cigarette. Skilfully, she blew a perfect ring of smoke. Her red eyes were focused entirely on John. They were hard, calculating and caring. “You’ve seven days, or I’ll be disappointed,” she stated.

“I’ll do my best to meet that,” John assured and the redhead took the two steps to claim her own goodbye kiss. It tasted of cigarette smoke, which made the affair a little less pleasant, but John loved her too much to mind. “You seriously need to quit smoking,” he joked afterwards.

“I’ve drastically cut back, so take what you can get,” Scarlett berated him. Their conversation was cut short when the rest of the harem stepped in and said their own goodbyes. By the end of it, Lee seemed like she was ready to cry and Scarlett was almost done with her cigarette. “If there’s any reason to believe this is a good idea, then it’s this shortie right here,” the technomancer said and ruffled Eliza’s hair.

“Get fucked, you technology addicted cumsponge,” the blood mage growled. She currently had the illusion active, leaving her hair a simple black. Trying her best to restore what little order there was, Eliza combed through the strands with her hands. “Start smoking garlic sticks, then your foul-ass breath would at least repulse vampires and only make me hungry rather than fucking disgusted with the state of your cancer-spewing throat.”

“Right, I forget sometimes that you’re a big deal,” Lee confessed.

“You can get fucked too, nerd-bitch,” Eliza cussed and then suddenly stopped herself. “Fucking ass, I am cranky today.” She sounded befuddled. “Fucking… urgh… uncertainty is shitty. Haven’t seriously fought since that volcano cunt created the geological equivalent of pus on the Guild Hall.”

There was a minor risk that Eliza would go berserk or that Thana could break out. Those were just another two in a whole series of things they had to consider. This was John’s least favourite kind of engagement, a completely blind one where he couldn’t even start to guess at the enemies capabilities. The uncertainty was straining.

Some among the harem lived for that kind of thrill, though. “Don’t ya worry, we’ll cart him back in… a maximum of three pieces,” Rave joked.

“The modern day is really pampered if you think charging into an unknown territory is that alarming,” Metra added with a wide grin. “Come on, let’s crush whatever is in there. God, Lorylim, human or something else entirely, doesn’t fucking matter.”

“I wonder if it will burn well,” Salamander cackled.

“I mean, Sally, if you put enough heat on it, then you will probably burn it well enough. You are really hot. Like, physical and magically hot,” Sylph babbled.

The bantering eased the tensions enough that John felt that this was the ideal point to leave. “Alright, seven days maximum,” he gave a final promise and raised his hand to leave the barrier. Lee and Scarlett waved and then they were gone.

They emerged in a middle-sized city in the southern USA, near the coast but not so close that one could see the water beyond the horizon. Like before, Undine was isolated. There was enough reason to believe that the Lorylim might be part of the Death Zone that John didn’t want to run any risk of them informing the eldritch abominations unnecessarily.

Perhaps it would have been the best call to dismiss her entirely for the duration of this expedition. Two things kept John from making that call. One was practical, if this wasn’t a Lorylim-related affair, he didn’t want their primary source of healing to be missing. The other was emotional, sending Undine back to the Mother of Water was to risk several days of torture for his water spirit. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place there. Safety from potential corruption or from certain, intense torment.

The most important fact was that John trusted Undine. Her body and will were much stronger than they had been almost a year back. Even if they did face Lorylim, she would not fall easily to their corruption. In the first place, the latest reading indicated that there was less corruption still remaining inside her body than had been inside John before the acquisition of Corruption Resistance 3.

Still, some was more than nothing, so the isolation persisted. All other elementals had also shifted into incorporeal form, but they were hooked up to his mind, while he explained the next few steps to his girls. “We’re taking a train to meet up with Aclysia and Bae,” he told them. “If we even get to meet them, we’re moving towards the centre of the Death Zone. If we find nothing there, we’ll go to the place that’s closest to the largest amount of water.”

“Whaddaya mean, ‘if we get to meet them’?” Rave asked. “They weren’t bothered at all in over three days, why should we need longer than that to meet with them?”

“Because there are two possible explanations for why they weren’t pulled in yet,” John told her. “One is that the Death Zone struggles pulling in people of considerable power. The search party that got sent after the first vanished group was above the level of the average soldier and Fusion’s soldiers are, at level 25, already stronger than most Abyssals. If that’s the case and this is a purely mechanical operation, you’re completely right and we have nothing irregular to fear at all.”

“…The way ya say that sounds like the second option is we have a conscious effort on our hand,” Rave stated and John just nodded. Since she had guessed that much, he let her puzzle the rest out as well, while they headed towards the nearby train station. “So, if the Death Zone is controlled by someone… and that someone doesn’t want your double in… they may decide to pull us in instantly?”

“Precisely,” John confirmed. “Worse yet, it might pull us in separately. We need to stick together as much as possible at all times.”