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The Gamer Chapter 1813 – New Akkad
🕑 Added 2025-01-09 15:19:29 +0000 UTC
‘I’m mildly surprised you agreed,’ John confessed to the vampire maid. ‘We’ll be out and about a lot today.’
‘You will see why I agreed in a moment, Master,’ Claire responded teasingly, then retreated from their mental connection. That left John with Ehtra.
The grey angel was naked. A far from unusual affair, although it had nothing to do with any ongoing or impending lewdness this time around. Ehtra was busy trying on clothes for the spontaneous date.
Clothes were a bit of an interesting matter for Artificial and Natural Spirits. Originally, they had been able to eat whatever clothes and reproduce them freely, a minor aspect of their general ability to shapeshift. That ability to shapeshift had been curtailed when the Monster Girl Perks came in. From what John had gathered, his Artificial Spirits had been more malleable than most and Gaia had seen it fit to take that advantage from him. Minorly irksome, like the loss of all tools was, but not consequential.
From that point onward, the shapeshifting had been limited to growing out and re-absorbing their clothes. Interestingly, the Metracanas, who had not had that ability previously, gained it. It was a loss on one side and an addition on the other.
For convenience reasons, the maids generally preferred to grow out their clothing. It was much easier to stay clean that way, between various times during the day that they were pulled away from regular duties to serve as John’s sexual relief servant. Beyond the maid outfit, they generally liked to put on clothes the regular way. It was just more satisfying that way, or so John had heard. Well, he could attest that it was definitely more satisfying to tear clothes off them. The maid outfits, he would never rip at in the same manner.
Ehtra held a dress in each hand. Both were of a distinctly Sumerian design and had been commissioned by her. The grey angel had her streaks of vanity, which she rarely admitted out loud yet never was shy about. Like many other things of the First of Hatred, she held such contradictions in her character with little issue.
The dresses were long and flowing, reaching the ankles of the tall, curvy woman. Predating many modern seaming methods and materials, they were fairly simple in their form. They emphasized the figure, as fashionable dresses in all ages were wont to do. The left shoulder was deliberately left fully exposed, putting the halter over the right. Fringes dangled in several sparkling layers, each band ending with a small gemstone or piece of precious metal.
The differences between the two dresses were simple: one was blue with a black pattern and the other was red with a beige pattern. Ehtra held one in front of herself in the mirror, humming uncertainly, then switched to the other one. The process had repeated enough times for John to raise his voice.
“Go with the red one.”
“…Doesn’t it make me look too colourful?” the First of Hatred asked.
“No,” John responded.
Ehtra clicked her tongue. “Can you put thought into your answer, at least?”
“I have put thought into it, the answer is just that simple: you look good in either one. Colour will not hurt your beauty.”
The answer had the tsundere maid hum with doubt. She still accepted it. Slipping into the dress was a bit of a wiggling affair. Clothes that were tight around the waist were difficult to get past the chest and hips for a woman like Ehtra. When she finally had it on, the curve of her E-cups caused one layer of fringes to dangle like a curtain. It was equal parts alluring and mildly amusing.
The dress on, Ehtra reached for another piece of ornamentation: a torc. The collar of dark metal was open at the front. Usually, items like that were designed to be semi-permanent, opened and closed by whatever smith or jeweller had made it. Ehtra effortlessly bent the flexible metal open with her hands and let it snap around her neck. It sat comfortably tight.
Ehtra inspected herself once more in the mirror, then nodded. “Red was a good choice,” she admitted. “We can go now.”
‘Where will we find you?’ John contacted Claire.
‘I’m waiting on the other side of the long-range teleporter,’ Claire informed him.
John took the lead, opening the doors for Ehtra, then taking stock of her butt whenever he let her pass through first. A pleasant way to pass the short distance to the teleporters. Once at the long range pad, he thought about the tenth destination he had set.
Until recently, that would have been the teleporter he had placed in Meridia, down in Yucatan. That teleporter had since been removed, alongside any traces that he still had deals with any local guilds. He did, of course, but he kept such contacts on the downlow. They were useful as contact points for Nightfall. Fusion still had no territorial ambitions in the area.
Now, that teleporter connected to a new point he had put up in the North American midlands. Having teleporters in Springfield and New Orleans had been insufficient for an area of that size, John had reckoned, and Ehtra’s wish to put together a spiritual continuation of her home was best served with a simple access point.
John had wanted to give her land that emulated Mesopotamia as closely as was possible. Finding the exact climate was impossible, for many reasons of geography. An approximation could be made, at least, when it came to river, sand, and fertile flats.
Akkad, or New Akkad, was located by the bend of one of the two rivers that framed the territory John had assigned to Ehtra. To the west, the territory faded into the rocky deserts. To the east, it greened further. Where it was, it was nicely fertile courtesy of the water provided by those two flowing streams.
It was a project in the early stages. A singular ziggurat had been finished. The light brown walls and angular shapes were visibly foreign, the layered design similar and yet distinctly different from European castles. Gardens had been planted on some of the stepped segments. Making palm trees and ferns native to the Fertile Crescent grow here had been a bit costly. Ehtra had paid that out of her own pocket.
John’s immediate attention was pulled away from what else the landscape had on offer. For all his love of architecture, he loved cute women more and Claire was VERY cute in that moment.
The vampire had also removed her maid outfit. In place of the revealing servant’s uniform, she wore a gothic dress that left barely any skin visible. Purple lace had been expertly stitched to a black dress. The many layers of its skirt caused it to flare outwards, emphasizing Claire’s already wide hips to an almost ludicrous degree. She wore a corset over the black fabric that clung tightly to chest and shoulders. That the sleeves were loose and dangly did not matter, as her hands were covered by deep black gloves. The neck of her dress finished halfway up. A large ruby surrounded by frills and other gems was the centrepiece of the collar.
Only her face and the upper half of her neck were revealed. Everywhere else, her pale white skin was entirely hidden and even those areas were under the shadow of a parasol she held to assure she was fully protected from the daystar. Hair and eyes were red, their original colour. All in all, Claire looked quite like the vampire they had found in another Kingdom.
“I take it you are pleased? You better be!” Claire twirled on one foot, then smoothly turned the motion into a bow. Her head never left the cover of the parasol. “Black suits me best, does it not?”
“It really does,” John had to agree. Pale and vampiric as she was, there were always mild gothic vibes to his (arguably) most obsessed maid. Leaning into them created wondrous results. He just had to kiss her.
‘Kissmemorekissmemorekissmemorekissmemore…!’ the torrent of blurred syllables flowed into John’s mind the second that his lips touched hers. From the first taste to the separation of their lips, she was keeping those words in her mind without pause. With them came a flood of bright pink, obsessive love so strong it manifested as a colour in John’s perception. “More…?” she asked out loud when they did separate.
“There’s someone else you should give greeting kisses to.” John gestured at Ehtra.
“That won’t be necessa-“ Ehtra attempted to downplay it, only for Claire to get into her face. Their height difference was inconsequentially small, and once the grey angel had a fellow haremette so close to her, even she could do only one thing.
Akkadian angel and gothic vampire from another world made out in a scenery recreating an ancient empire. It was a wondrous sight on many levels. Ehtra’s choice of clothes made her the only entity that truly belonged in this place and that was proper. It was her place after all. The patterns on her dress matched the simple shape of the ziggurat and the decorations cut into the stacked stones. Claire was a bit out of place, but John could ignore that quite well. He was too mesmerized by the bashful way Ehtra reciprocated the kiss. Her grey wings fluttered joyfully.
Suddenly, Ehtra pulled away. “Enough, insatiable creature!” she declared, then cleared her throat. “Enough. We can kiss whenever we want. Our Master desired a tour.”
“That I did.” John stepped between the two women to put his arms around them. “Point me in the right direction.”
“Follow the red path,” Ehtra stated and gestured ahead.
A dramatic way to tell John to follow the reddish-brown sidewalk. The Gamer took a slow step and the women pulled along. They needed only a few moments to find a unified rhythm. Walking together was a common exercise.
For the most part, the barrier was quiet. The land Ehtra had been given was much larger than a regular Protected Space could fill out. Only one of the two rivers, therefore, flowed past them. That it flowed from and to points beyond the reaches of the walls did not matter to whatever rules Gaia had put in place. It flowed and provided the soft ambient of moving water. A natural sound quite different from the hammering, sawing, and other heavy noises stemming from manual labour.
The crew of workers soon came into view. They were busy moving stones into place. Large, flat ones, that would serve as the foundation for future buildings. While the men did wear modern clothes, they used old methods, both of moving and of placing the stones. Akkad having made ample use of magic on the Abyssal side meant that older methods were merely less efficient, not any worse on their backs.
“Who are they?” Claire asked. “Besides, you know, the guys you hired for this?”
“You could call them restoration enthusiasts,” Ehtra stated plainly. “I offered them the chance to learn the ancient construction methods of Akkad and they accepted. I cover the expenses and describe to them how and what I need done. They do it decently enough.”
“High praise from you,” John teased. “What do you want to do with this place, once they are finished building it?”
“What do I want to do with this place…?” Ehtra mumbled the words back to herself. She let out a long sigh. “I don’t know, man.”
Claire snorted in amusement. “That’s such a casual answer. That’s such a weird answer. That’s such a non-answer.”
“Let me think, babbling creature!” Ehtra snapped back. The feathers of her wings clattered, a hundred small knives rattling. “It is not simple. I want my home back… but I know my home is gone.” Ehtra scanned the environment with scorn. It was directed inwardly. “Maybe I have simply built a monument to nostalgia. Do I dare let people live here and make a mockery of memories I cherish by walking through facsimiles of sacred halls with Adidas sneakers?”
“Why Adidas in particular?” John couldn’t help but wonder.
Ehtra made an off-handed gesture at the pants one of the workers wore and that answered that. “All I know is that I want this to stand. What comes next, I am considering.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Claire stated cheerfully.
“You and your positive attitude,” Ehtra sneered.
“Oh, you know, I’ve already gone through the worst life can offer me, so, the good vibes come naturally.” Claire spun her parasol and sent a mental request/plea/order to John. The tone made it all three at once. ‘Hug me harder, please!’
John obliged, practically mashing the bottom-heavy redhead against his chest. She swooned like a woman melting in a bathtub.
“…How does it feel, to get your vengeance?” Ehtra asked.
“When I learned that Arkeidos had fallen, it was a storm of elation only toppled by the purest joy I felt after learning I had been brought to this world to be Master’s next servant.”
“Not the reason I brought you,” John reminded her. “I brought you because I wanted you to be with me.”
“Eh, aluminium, aluminum.” Claire shrugged, then smiled sharply. “Important is that the tyrant is dead and I live in pure joy. When we cut Tiamat’s last head, you will assuredly feel the same elation.”
“I better,” Ehtra hissed.
John wasn’t sure if it was going to be that simple. Arkeidos had been the enemy to Claire. To Ehtra, Tiamat was also her mother. Then again, Ehtra was a woman to hold grudges – intense ones – and the betrayal had been thorough and horrid. Whether that was enough to truly break the familial bond in completion… only time would tell.
“I have a matter I need to bring to your attention,” Ehtra changed the topic. “Namely the absence of one redhead the last two days.”
John pulled his lips into a half a smirk. “Amusing, isn’t it?”
“The preaching creature is shirking her duty.”
“She certainly is,” John agreed. “I’ll see her this afternoon. I intend to bring it to her attention the-“
The air in front of the group rolled open. What had been simple space separated into equal pieces, a grid with two rows and eight columns. The individual brackets drifted slightly apart, then rolled up like teeth made out of roll-up curtains.
John had teleported five metres back immediately. Claire had taken two hasty steps back. Ehtra gripped her Astrotium blade and thrust it at the gap. “Whooooooa there!” a familiar voice shouted. The weapon came to a planned halt short of the target. Ehtra understood to lead with a warning shot.
A valuable policy, especially when the peeling space revealed Lee.
John recognized the environment the youngest member of his harem stood in. A big desk, classical paintings, a Victorian flare mixed with shapes and decorations generally considered beautiful. The owner of the office sat behind that chair on a solid chair of wood and leather.
Flabbergasted was not an expression that John had seen on Magoi Magus’ face before. The High Fateweaver’s mask was on the table, leaving his scarred, bald head exposed. His mouth hung open, his eyes were almost as wide, and when he finally recovered, he did so with the audible clack of his teeth. “Can you go through that?!” he asked.
“Dunno?” Ehtra lowered the sword so Lee could try. She placed her hand on something ephemeral and somewhat solid. John recognized the gesture. “Nope, Illusion Barrier wall… sorry, I had to think of some anchor. Have fun on your date, dudes!” Without any further comments, Lee closed the rift in space.
“Did you prove the Event Horizon Hypothesis?!” Those were the last words John heard before the space fully folded.
“…Freaking tomboy,” John groaned. He would get a status report for this later, but it seemed that his long-range teleporters soon would become only one way of him crossing massive distances. “I suppose we’ll see where that goes.”
They walked off what had just happened, continuing further into New Akkad. It was mostly foundations so far. Marked lots and shallow ditches that would become channels later. Ehtra insisted that the beauty of Sumerian cities had come from the intricate garden systems and John was looking forward to seeing them realized. In the worst case, this space would become a time capsule. In the best case… well, that was for Ehtra to decide.
“What is the first thing you notice when you meet a new person?” Claire suddenly asked.
There was no need to raise an eyebrow at the question. All of the vampire’s Charisma was channelled into knowing when to preserve silence and when to uproot it. Conversation starters like that were a simple way to deal with the latter.
“Male or female?” John asked.
“Let’s go with both,” Claire said.
“For guys it’s usually their shoulder width, I suppose,” John answered, then went into self-analysis. “Must be some kind of artefact from physical hierarchy thinking? For women it’s usually hip-width, assuming I first see them from the front. Otherwise, you know the answer.”
“Everyone knows your answer, butt-obsessed man that you are,” Ehtra criticized. He squeezed her rear. All of her sneering and yet she was again nuzzled against his side. “The first notice I take of people I meet is the weight of their sins.”
“You really are the incarnation of a heavy metal album cover, aren’t you?” Claire asked jovially.
The grey angel rolled her eyes. “Then what is your answer?”
“For men it’s how much they are beneath Master. For women it’s whether they’re attractive enough for Master.”
“Which reminds me of that thing you’re hiding within our home,” Ehtra growled.
“Babababa!” John interrupted. “I’ve decided not to learn anything about that until they present the truth to me.”
“And I swear that it shall be worth it, despite all the sins committed!” Claire declared. “Now, what do you want to put there?”
Ehtra leered at Claire, the annoyance plainly written on her face. Still, she let the topic drift according to the whims of the vampire. “Plinths. I wish to commission statues of all the heroes that were forgotten.”
“Ooooh, do tell!” Claire coaxed more out of the grey angel.
Soon enough, they were just talking about this and that.
Comments
Nessa Bright
Omg I want art of these outfits
FluffyButt Sr.
Such a nice day out.
