"Well, I'd say you've actually come quite a long way, boy." Seria says, smirking.

"Um... we all have... perhaps...?" Kiku adds.

Yes, it’s not only me of course. The girls themselves have been working on their teamwork and techniques with the facilities available. Though I was first to show off, I don't doubt the fact that I am about to eclipsed in every way possible by the girls. It’s part of the reason I did it now.

"Ufufufu... perhaps I was arrogant to the extent of my own strength. This awakening... and then teamwork. It appears there was a sky beyond the pinnacle after all."

"Still arrogant, then. Hehehe..." Rishya laughs, and Seria gives her the stink eye, but then also laughs.

"Well, shall we?" Seria grins.

Oh? They're doing a combo attack or something? Though I've been trying to keep track of everyone, its tiring and difficult at the best of times, and doubtlessly over the last week I swear I've been misdirected and manipulated by cunning, horny, lolis at every conceivable step. And, being as I am, I have blundered into every possible honey trap and been shamefully distracted at every turn.

A shamufural dissprayy? Yeah, probably.

Well, never mind. I'm interested to see what they pull off with their frankly queer relationship. I sit down in the peanut gallery in the space left by Rishya, next to Aria. Aeris bounds over like a cat and inhabits my lap space with a jump that is rather painful considering she weighs at least 80 kg despite being just four feet tall. I hide my grimace and stroke her metallic hair though. Aria apparently notices and looks concerned though.

Seria and Rishya start off by holding hands. How lewd. Ahem. I'm sure it’s for power channelling or something?

"Un, it is, master. Michael and Seryamerya are synergising."

I think Aeris can read my thoughts sometimes. But as I think that, she merely cocks her head in a 'shaft tilt' to me quizzically, then turns to watch.

And it’s worth a watch.

In case lightning and lasers splitting the sky was not enough for you, these two have decided to one up the old fantasy game favourite, chain lightning.

A powerful looking blue laser zaps out from them, and initially looks like it will miss, but before impacting a wall, it literally makes a right-angle turn. Then it curves and spins like a pirouetting dancer, intercepting and melting targets considered its enemies like a homing missile. Then it shoots directly over to me, and though it scares a few more days off my life, just passes right through me and the girls, and makes me feeling suddenly revitalised again before suddenly doing another about face turn and vaporising a dummy in an explosive finish.

Yikes. Their new combo attack honestly puts Aeris' new little tricks to shame. Not that Aeris minds. She is just whooping and giggling and praising her big cool siblings Michael and 'Seryamerya'.

"Phew... that was quite a workout. Did you enjoy it, Elijah-sama?" Rishya does a cute 'leaning forward' pose that is rather erotic and reminds me of...

"Mmmm... you need to work on your lines, you said the same in bed yesterday, didn't you?" Seria snarks.

Oh right.

"Y-y-you were watching!?" Rishya suddenly looks aghast.

"Um, I assumed you were quite aware that Seria was scribing in the room at the time, Rishya? It wasn't an arrangement?" I ask.

Rishya goes bright red and Seria cackles like the mad old woman she really is.

"You! We agreed not to..."

"Mmmm... not to overlap times. Did I interrupt? I don't believe I did... fufufufu..."

Rishya panics and opens and closes her mouth.

"It ~is~ the first rule of being a lady of the court, Rish, 'watch out for loopholes'." Aria states, casually chewing on a dried ration stick.

Defeated by her own negligence, poor Rish gives up on arguing.

They then briefly explain that, apparently, Rishya provides power regulation, and Seria the aiming in this case.

Kaede and Kali then proceeded to show us an interesting agility fest. Apparently, Kaede using a fire jutsu with Kali's own Meenaora arts allows the two of them to create some powerful blue flames they say were inspired by my thrown bombs. Seria was enthralled by yet another weird use of magic power.

On top of that was the silliest trick yet... Kaede throwing a Kunai at Kali who punches it mid-flight, ricocheting it into the target with the power of a shotgun blast.

Kaede didn't like this one because it wrecked the Kunai into shrapnel, but Aeris suddenly danced along, sniffed the scrap, grabbed it whole despite it being embedded into stone, and it melted and reformed without issue, pinging out. She then presented it jubilantly back to a surprised Kaede.

Similarly, Aria and Kiku showed us something new. Aria charged into a dummy, impaling it and pinning it hard to the ground, allowing Kiku to rapidly flash step around it in a blur. As she stopped, the poor thing exploded along about seventy delayed cuts. I'd almost say it was overkill, but who know what powerful things the demons will field?

After that, there was something else as well. Apparently, inspired by what I was doing with Aeris, Seria also figured out enchanting weapons for the other girls, and let them try it out. Aria, Kiku and Kali were happy with this, allowing them to perform thunderclap like electrical strikes with their attacks, though Seria said it would dispel itself after a couple of strong hits, and Kiku's dispelling technique would obviously cancel it.

Aeris, being the sword herself, could sustain it perpetually, of course. The fact of which made her take on a smug posture.

The day after, we all prepared to leave the place that had been our home for a couple of weeks. Though I was still nervous, I agreed that the time had come for us to finally start making progress towards fighting Cultivator directly.

So, our next stop was back to the capital, at last.