The Gamer Chapter 1508 – Italian Beach Episode 2 – Romantic (Patreon)

They stepped out through the door, wearing a spread of bikinis and swimsuits that ranged from adorable to downright irrelevant. Be it because there was less fabric to play with or just because they did not care that much, the differences here were much smaller than between their dresses.

Momo, Nightingale and Gnome had decided to go for one-piece swimsuits, each in their individual colours. Lorelei wore by far the most modest piece: a swimdress, for the lack of a better term, whose skirt hid the presence of the chastity belt underneath. Aclysia and Beatrice wore matching, delectably small bikinis, one black, the other white. Undine wore a similarly tiny set, although hers had some decorative strings in addition to what little of her breasts and crotch it covered.

Eliana, Delicia, Lydia, Hailey, Nia and Salamander wore regular bikinis. For some of them regular might as well have been small, considering the size of their assets. Scarlett and Claire wore much the same, but added one of John’s summer shirts on top, purely to expose less of their skin to the hated sun.

In an unusual state of affairs, Siena and Rave wore matching swimsuits. Micro swimsuits, that were basically just V-shaped strings that barely hid their lewdest bits from the naked eye. Sylph, Nathalia, and Lee wore the typical micro bikini, the last of those three doing it more for a challenge to herself than any other reason.

Behind quite a few of the thongs, when haremettes bent over, John could spot the little sparkle of gem-decorated butt plugs. “There be a lot of booty at this beach,” the Gamer joked.

It was perhaps for the best that no one heard him.

Everyone was instead focused around the varying preparations they had to do for their evening/night beach party. Holes were dug, bottles placed in the wet sand, towels spread out, and parasols carried out. The last of which was enacted by Claire, Scarlett, and Momo, in a manner that John could only describe as militaristic.

Each holding an open parasol, the three incarnations of paleness held their ‘shields’ up as they advanced westwards. They held a tight formation, not letting any rays of the setting sun touch them. “You know, I get Claire,” John commented, as the anti-daystar crusade passed him, “but you two? Scarlett, you know you’re way beyond the level that sunburns are an issue, right? Momo you… know you don’t get sunburns?”

“It’s still too bright!” Momo declared.

“Yeah,” Scarlett agreed.

“Yes, join me, sisters. Join me in our just war. Join me in our eternal war. Join me in researching how to put the world into darkness forever!” Claire declared. In her enthusiasm, she raised her parasol up slightly. She hissed when a ray hit her leg. “Can I kill Sol?”

“That wouldn’t kill the sun,” John promised the vampire.

“I would still feel better.”

“Sun’s gon’be gone in thirty minutes tops, anyhoo,” Hailey told all of them, a hand on her wide hips. “Why ya botherin’?”

“Thirty minutes is already too much,” Claire mumbled. “Accursed daystar, I will unlock the secrets of what the people of this world call astrophysics, and I shall blow you into so many bits not even gravity can reconstruct you in a trillion years. Do you hear me, sun? I HATE YOU!”

John did take half a step away at the intensity of that statement. ‘To be Claire is to feel fully,’ he thought. The vampire maid was quite prone to extremes. It was good then that she was not typically prone to sudden mood swings. Save for things that were related to him, Claire needed to ramp herself up. Still, the intensity of things went up the chart once she got there.

“Keep it to yourself when Sol is in the room,” Momo pleaded.

“Urgh, fine. Gnome, help please?”

“R-right away!” the season elemental stammered and stomped once. A wall of sandstone shot up in response, giving Clare the necessary cover even after she had put up the parasol.

“Also, we’re not staying here just today,” Momo said to Hailey. “We’ll need those tomorrow and maybe the days after that.”

“That depends on the voting,” Lydia stated. “Regarding which, are there any updates?”

“Honestly, more bad news than good news… I still can’t be sure whether the Mandate of Heaven will vote for us, and the Dangun Clan will probably remain aligned against us… and now I don’t trust Prometheus either.”

Lydia furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head. “Why is that?”

John took a deep breath. Unlike the crystal in his inventory, this secret he felt comfortable divulging right where he was. “Remus is Prometheus,” he said three simple words.

The weight of that was lost on most of the haremettes, who were not as clued into the Promethean religion. Lydia, however, instantly joined the dots and went pale. Staring at nothing, she rubbed her forehead with contemplative motions. “Scheiße,” she cursed. While the queen calmed herself down, Momo gave everyone the rundown on what had transpired and what the extent of that revelation was likely to mean. “I am growing to despise ancient secrets,” Lydia complained at the end.

“You and me both,” Metra joined.

“Oh, well, if you would be pleased to share where-“

“If you’re about to ask for the location of Sargon’s grave,” Metra interrupted Siena in harsh tones, “I will see if the ocean is big enough to drown your fucking ego.”

Siena narrowed her eyes, visibly contemplating whether she wanted to escalate the situation or not. The air around the First of Wrath had nothing passionate or warm about it. Her stare was forged from the determination that had kept a secret for four millennia. Even the local agitator backed off under that pressure.

Knowing she had won, Metra grinned widely, dispersing the tension on the beach. “That whole Prometheus secret was already ancient when I was created. Gives you room to think how fucking small we are, eh?”

“Makes you wonder what else is hiding in the corners of history… any sizable incidents that come to mind about the Abyss getting overcome by figures from the past manifesting again?”

“There is the march of the Second Terracotta Army,” Lydia thought back. “That destabilized India back in the day and began the events of the War in Heaven, ending with the dispersing of the Hindu pantheon and the declaration of Krieg’s council. Since then, Hindu gods have occasionally appeared in Asia, but that has obviously lessened. The return of the Antaraxas was a big deal in Europe, leading to the death of Barbarossa.”

“The what now?” John asked. It was rare that he hadn’t heard of something.

“I suppose it was entirely removed from mundane history… the Antaraxas were a tribe around modern day Czechia. They vanished suddenly from the history books, entirely from the mundane ones, and one day manifested once more. It appears that they had found a stable Kingdom gate and migrated through it. About a millennium later, they emerged again, in great numbers and with great leadership, and slaughtered much of the area. Eventually, the Kingdom gate must have closed again, and the forces that were left on Earth were slaughtered to the last.” Lydia contemplated for a moment. “The vast majority of unexpected enemies from the past re-emerging are likely related to old Kingdom connections opening again. Besides that, the most common disasters are old creations going haywire or the occasional resurrection.”

“I suppose Remus’ return would be part of the latter category,” John mumbled, then waved off. “We can talk more about it another time.”

“My love, I must insist that-“ Lydia stopped when John manoeuvred his way behind her. His hands landed on her shoulders. With a bit of force, he turned her towards the sunset.

“Lydia, there’s nothing we can do but worry, and we worry enough in our own time,” he assured her in a soft voice. “Let’s enjoy this romantic sight, okay?”

“I am truly flattered by the idea, John, but I must insist that-“

Again, Lydia stopped, this time because he let out a long sigh. “No other choice then. Jane, would you help me with this?”

“Teasing Lyly? Always,” Rave responded and stepped up. For one more second, the royal wore the expression of confusion, then the head of the harem and her fiancé moved in swift unison. Confusion turned into panic as she was lifted up. Held by hips and shoulders, Lydia kicked and screamed.

“Unhand me! Not this again! I refuse! Do not make me turn violent, you- No! NOOOOOOO!” Lydia’s complaints went unheard, over the sound of footsteps hitting the oddly still ocean. The power couple made it just deep enough that the water began to reach John’s thighs, then they tossed the queen into the calm blue waters.

Lydia hit the ocean with all the grace of an unprepared lobster. The moment her feet hit the sand, she pushed herself back up in an explosion of salt and fury. Her auburn hair had gone from carefully styled to saltwater soaked in a near instant. “Run!” Rave laughed.

“You think of yourself as such tricksters, do you?!” Lydia shouted. The previously calm sea was churned into motion when the agitated superhuman dragged her arm through the water. John felt the draft of liquid around his legs before the wave crashed over his back. Defences lowered, he lost his footing, and tasted saltwater a moment later. When he got back up, he did so to the laughter of his fiancée.

“Can’t keep your footing in a little wave?” she mocked him.

“At least I don’t go nuclear when a little bit of water hits me,” John joked.

“What’s that supposed to- Oh, oh no, ya did not!”

“And what if I did?”

“How about we test how many tsunamis you can take?” Rave’s fake outrage was turned into a not so fake splash of her own. Of course, the splash of an entity at her level was truly a sight to behold. That Rave was a skilled Martial Artist, where Lydia merely supplemented her fighting style with it, turned that playful attack into a two-metre-tall wave.

‘Man, and that’s without water magic,’ John thought, moments before the crest of the advancing water smashed into his head.

He could have stood his ground, but it was fun to just let the wave take him. It carried him with enough force that he stopped in the shallow water. Laying on his back, he looked up at the lavender sky. For a moment, he just looked heavenward, then heaven looked back at him.

“How you doing, Johnny? You doing good? You look like you doing good. Although, if I was to open a dictionary definition… no wait, that’s not how that sentence works… uhm, where was I? Oh, yeah, if I was to look at the image of the dictionary definition for the word good – that’s how that sentence works – probably would not be your face.”

“What would it be?” John asked the green haired elemental. Sylph was half-squatting above his face, her face framed by her thighs. One finger tapping against her lower lip, she contemplated.

“Hmmmmm, Aclysia’s cooking, maybe? No, that would be a bad example, you’d just have to take it on faith that it’s good, and you could do that, because it’s Aclysia, but you’d still need all this bonus knowledge to get it. Eliana, maybe, because she’s such a good girl? Sally’s face, maybe, because when I look at her I just think ‘Yeah, life’s good’? Oh, oh, how about-“

John never got to hear the last suggestion because a fresh wave washed over his body. He barely got to save his eyes from the displeasing sting of saltwater. When it receded, all he heard was Sylph’s wild laughter. The arcvolt elemental slapped her knee repeatedly, enjoying some private joke – likely his face when he had been under.

The Gamer attempted to sit up. A gust behind him was the only warning he got, then Sylph firmly pulled him back down onto her small but surprisingly meaty thighs. As more waves reached the shore, created by the water fight between Rave and Lydia, the harem ran into the ocean one after the other. What started as a simple two-front war soon turned into a multi-directional, multi-factional disaster. Water splashed in giant arcs. John was reminded of when he had been a child, when everything had looked huge, because he had been small.

John decided now was the time to bring his additional bodies back out. The Creator Puppet got involved in the deadly sparring match out in the ocean, while the Ambassador Double settled among the sun-averse trio. That way, he was with all of his haremettes, in some form.

“Aren’t you going to join them?” John’s question was directed at Sylph and the four elementals that crowded around her. Gnome, Salamander, Undine and Siena knelt or stood by his head, smiling softly or grinning ear to ear.

“It wouldn’t be fair,” Undine commented, the hint of a broad smile on her dark lips.

John just laughed at that and patted the sand next to him. Gnome and Siena quickly took the place. Undine sat down behind Sylph, serving as a cushion for John’s cushion. Salamander was content plopping down cross-legged slightly removed, but clearly still part of the formation in spirit, her tail coiled with that of Siena.

In silence, they lay and sat there, just gazing out into the sunset. The spray of displaced seawater sparkled in the air. Back to the dance, John’s mind wandered when everything had been reduced to them for a little bit. He wasn’t quite as relaxed now, not quite as close to each of them individually as he had been in that chain of moments. There was still much on his mind and he had all of them in his heart. He still did not know how there was so much room in there. Love, it seemed, was capable of just growing endlessly.

“One, two, three,” Gnome muttered and suddenly all of the elementals raised their hands. One unified gesture turned the fine spray in the air into a refractive curtain. Breaking the light of the fading sun, the elementals cast a rainbow over the horizon for just one moment. Then, there was too little of the sun left to allow the sight. It got dark, but the water retained a pleasant, lukewarm temperature.

It wasn’t exactly a romantic getaway, but it was their evening.