"Is she...?" Gaia unsurely spoke up. Her hesitant wording prompts a giggle from Yggdra who has been mostly uninvolved in the discussion. "Yes, our Elysia really is fighting and lecturing them at the same time." Yggdra then proceeds to bring up a table towel to clean a piece of food debris near my lips. I mutter a thank you before resuming my munching duty. I think Yggdra would rather me being fed by her rather than talking now. I guess she will handle the conversation from here on out.

My conjecture is soon proven true when Gaia, as if sensing my content withdrawal from the conversation, starts directing her gaze upward, locking eyes with Yggdra.

Yggdra just smiles before looking down at the visual projection. Thanks to the magical properties of the projection, we can both see and hear what the combatants have to say. It's mostly Elysia putting on her mischievous teacher persona though, the little girls trying to score a hit on the High Elf have been running themselves ragged.

"Come on, come on! Bella, you need to put more effort into your lightning! Use your imagination and your creativity! Fuel it with your passion, your heart, your soul! Bring forth not just a mere lightning, but a thunderstorm worthy of praises from the Gods themselves!"

"Tsk tsk tsk~! Little Sirin, it's not very proper of you to launch a lance from right under my skirt, you know? Though it's a good attempt nonetheless. You have aimed for when I had been pinned down by Bronnie at the back while Rozaliya and Liliya engaged me in close combat. That said, you should have been more mindful of the battle space, I could have just directed either of the twins right into that lance, you know? Being powerful, even with quick sub-second decision-making, doesn't mean that you can skim on awareness!"

"Wonderful! You're learning fast, Mash! It appears you had noticed the flaws in your shield stance and were quick to correct them! I would have to pour in more effort to sneak an arrow past it... But not impossible! While your shield fighting art is good, great even, the fact that you don't use your sword means that you lack the versatility and solutions to solve a nasty attack."

"Oh ya, oh ya~! That was some dangerous move you just pulled there, Seele! You're one such deadly cutie, aren't ya? To think you would snuck up behind me while I was lecturing Mash and tried to decapacitate me. I wonder, was it you in control, your second personality leaking out in combat, or had she already taken over?"

"Ara, Bronnie~! It's quite rude to interrupt my bonding session with Seele over here with gunfire, you know? Now that I brought that up, Bronnie is quite limited in what she can do, ain't it? Bronnie can make many things out of thin air, but you're limited by how familiar you are with the objects. You haven't been able to come into contact with many new things, hence you won't be able to use your matter creation ability to its full potential. I can also see that despite your impressive hand-to-hand ability for your age, you're lacking in both stamina and mana for a drawn-out engagement like this one. My only standing advice is to learn more and train more. Bronnie is smart, you can figure out the rest."

And yes, Elysia gives them advice even though she comes this close to: being turned into Swiss chess (Bronya conjuring up M1918 SMGs in the dozens), deep-fried by lightning (Bella following her suggestion and casting uninterrupted lightning bolts from her hands), skewered by hypersonic lances (Sirin launching her subspace lances through multiple portals to accelerate them to ludicrous speed), death by a thousand cuts (Rozaliya, Liliya, and Seele basically having had enough and cooperated with the backline to assault Elysia while she's pinned), or death by pummeling (Mash deciding to go through with Elysia's advice and bringing out her sword, being the one to keep the elf occupied long enough for the rest to chip in some damage).

Honestly speaking, they're improving at an astounding rate even though they're just kids. Innate talents, maybe? But even that won't be enough to pick up combat skills and instincts that take years to train. Just the fact that these girls can change their fighting style and mix and match on the fly is ridiculous enough. This is not to mention the fact that their stamina rivaled that of some adults, even with their absurd acrobats and expenditure of supernatural skills. The more I see it, the more I am convinced that Elysia has truly been leading them on and on, applying just enough pressure to push them past their own limits, but not sufficiently to break them. It's telling enough that Elysia has been kiting away, firing her arrows at an irregular pace, and only going hand-to-hand when enlightening the uneducated twins and shielder is needed.

Ok, what the Hell? I know that Elysia is beautiful and strong, but for her to be an elegant idol and a wonderful tutor at the same time? Just what else can't she do nowadays?

My thoughts stop at that question, however. It's now that I realize that I haven't been able to spend enough time with my family. I've been sinking so much into the vortex of being a Marshal that I've been neglecting the side bearing the name of Yuki. Damn it, I can't help but feel that I have been an unfaithful wife now that I think this far. So other than writing up new plans, I need to, quite literally, go on a date, get laid, and all that jazz...

My attention is pulled back to reality when Yggdra starts petting me like a cat, once again. She then goes on to explain something to Gaia.

"Since Yuki already gave you a rundown about Mash, let me tell you about the others before we call it a day. We'll be passing Yuki's bedtime soon enough."

I pout at that. "I'm not a child, and it's still early in the evening, you know?"

Yggdra just smiles, continuing her pat. "There, there. Settle down now, dearie."

I humph before diverting my attention back to the ongoing fight with Elysia still as peerless as ever.

"Now let's see," Yggdra talked to Gaia. "I think we should start with the twins and Bella first then. They're surprisingly similar to one another, but albeit with different abilities to show for."

"Ah, I have much the same thought when I view them in action." Gaia commented.

"It's quite easy to notice, is it not? Of the seven, Rozaliya, Liliya, and Bella, are the only three to wield basic elemental manipulation as their primary abilities. Bella, as you have seen time and time again, leans heavily into the lightning aspect, and she's quite a powerful lightning user at that. Rozaliya and Liliya, on the other hand, use fire and ice respectively. That said, while Bella favors medium-range bombardment and blitz attack, the twins go all-in on CQC. Rozaliya and Liliya favor coating their body parts and weapons in fire and ice, thus increasing their effectiveness. But understandably, they won't be able to cause widespread destruction like Sirin, Bella, and eventually Bronya."

"Now that you have a gist about the abilities of the twins and Bella, it should be a suitable segue as any to explain just how they receive it. After reviewing Mash's case, Cocolia requests to perform the same style of enhancement progress to the rest of the girls. To this request, Lyssa gave the go-ahead and even went as far as providing Cocolia with additional artifacts and catalysts. Lyssa wasn't being generous, however, she just wanted more data as a result of the girls' procedures, whether they succeeded or not was not the madwoman's concern. Bella, suffering from a degraded nervous system, subsumed the carcass of a storm dragon with an affinity for lightning and wind, thus fixing her body and strengthening it. Rozaliya and Liliya were, believe it or not, had their bodies fused together at once since birth. It's only when they absorbed the essence of two different chimeras that they were separated into two beings like they are now. The process gave them each a tail with four sharp claws and further bonuses. Being fused together for a time, the twins share a close bond that only got reinforced further when they were separated."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Bella, given enough time, may fully master her elemental affinities, and may even access her draconic nature. Rozaliya and Liliya may turn into a pair of unstoppable slaughter machines, owing to their impressive coordination and kinetic abilities."

Gaia raises her eyebrow, highly impressed. "Wow, just one of the three alone is already a jackpot and a half. But now you have seven?"

Yggdra smirks. "Wait till you hear the next ones."

"Next should be Seele, she's an interesting case, being the inheritor to the original Hades. This is a fact that we have immediately confirmed with one Natasha Ciora due to her being a person blessed by Hades, thus giving impressive stealth on the field."

"Inheritor? Not reincarnated?" Gaia posed a question, having picked up on the choice of words.

Yggdra nods. "That is correct. It turns out that the original Hades didn't die at all, at least not fully. They live on in the fragments of their artifacts, with the most major one being the Helm of Hades. Seele is bound to not just one fragment, but all of them. This, combined with the fact that the girl has such a high affinity to Death, allows Seele to host the reformed soul of Hades inside her. While not always available, Seele has noted that she can communicate with Hades, who has opted to go by a different name now, and even cede bodily control to the former Death God."

"Oh, now that is highly interesting. What's their new name?"

"Veliona, Veliona Hades. Quite surprising that they is now a she, don't you think?"

"Indeed, I would have thought that she would remain a skeletal sack like many others that followed after her."

"One can only be an Emo for so long, even if the phase lasted an eon." Yggdra jested, earning Gaia's snickering and a sneeze from Seele.

Seele, being distracted by the sneeze, got bonked away by Elysia's Sonnet.

"Anyway," Yggdra continues. "Seele is now arguably the strongest among the seven due to Veliona gifting her with a great many death arts and abilities. Her power, when utilized properly, was even enough to hide from you, Gaia. But of course, the girl herself is a bit too shy in using her gifts to the greatest of potential. As such, Veliona has to take the rein sometimes, as you may have seen. You may know whoever is in control due to their shifting color scheme from white and blue to black and red, their weapons will change from a scythe to a set of claws."

"Oh~! So that's what it was!" Gaia nodded, slamming her fist on her open palm in acknowledgment.

Yggdra spares a glance at the Will of the Planet before saying. "The person that you will most probably see next to Seele is Bronya. Surprisingly, she has been a child assassin before a bomb blast crippled her legs. Rescued by Cocolia, Bronya bonded with Seele due to the latter's innocence, they have been inseparable ever since. Much like Seele, Bronya was bounded by multiple artifacts and catalysts. Only this time, instead of one Hades, Bronya found herself with multiple pieces of shattered divinities belonging to a great many Gods and Deities governing attributes like Wisdom, Knowledge, Crafting, and Blacksmithing... Even now, ONI is still trying to get a proper list of whom Bronya had made contact with."

Hearing that, Gaia shoots her eyes toward the floating girl with a silver twin-tail. "How the fuck did she not go insane? Broken or not, that many divinities should have caused her to lose herself."

Yggdra grins. "Honestly, I think she already was insane before everything. A child wasn't supposed to be a notorious assassin, much less one that survived everything life had got to throw at her."

"Point taken."

"Back to the topic at hand. Owing to her... Peculiar set of gifts, Bronya is able to expand mana to conjure up constructs out of thin air. The cost is relative to how many and how complex her constructs are. The requirement to create a construct is for her to be intimately familiar with the objects to make them. Examples are her creation of the Sardegnian M1918 SMG or the Rusviet Mosin-Nagant rifle, which she had spent a great deal of time learning and using. But of course, to power her impressive ability, Bronya needs to have an impressive calculating power to boot. Surprisingly enough, she has aplenty, albeit not to the extent of my little Ningyo."

"You don't expect her to create a Minibreve, don't you?"

"Given enough time and learning material, she pretty darn just might. Depending on how much mana she pours into a construct, it may have or may not disappear after some time." Yggdra added.

"Jeez~! Arguably, she is the best catch of the day for Belka. Her potential as a walking factory is too great to ignore."

"Yes, but we are not that heartless." Yggdra just smiled. "Last but not least, Sirin. And boy, is she a surprising find."

Even Gaia can't stop herself from smiling wryly at that. "That would be an understatement, for good or for worse, I have no idea."

"It will be shocking for you, but a pleasant surprise for us." Yggdra said. "To think she is able to invoke Void-related abilities without much issue at all has been astounding. With Void, one can easily branch over to Space and Time, Creation and Destruction, Life and Death, and so on... The abilities Sirin has been showing thus far, this is but the tip of the iceberg. If Sirin matures, almost no one on this planet can stop her if she decides to go for world domination one day. It's a fortunate thing that Lyssa never got the chance to do anything about her."

Gaia sighs in relief at that. "Lucky break for us then?" Yggdra nods at that. "But say, I could see that Sirin has been quite smitten with Yuki right here. Care to explain how our Mashal even managed to get a loli to fall for her?"

Ok, I have been ignoring the conversation thus far, but that question caused me to feel a burn on my cheeks.

Yggdra chuckles. "Ara, well, it wasn't really Yuki's fault per se. As I said, Void can easily branch over to Space and Time because Void birthed them. Sirin, being a wielder of a fragment of the Void, also wields a similar fragment over Time. This particular fragment though, had given Sirin limited visions of potential futures in the shape of a dream, every, single, night~!"

Gaia, at first, can only stare blankly ahead, not quite understanding. Five seconds later, she reacts. "Oh... Oh! OH~! So that's how it is! Tsk~! As expected of the Marshal, even in a dream, she can still court a girl to bed."

That's it! "Yggdra damn it, Gaia! Don't make me into a fucking pedo you masochist!"

Gaia sputters at my retort. "The fuck!? Yuki, masochist! What the fuck gave you that impression of me, huh!?"

I roll my eyes. "Duh, you're the one to defend humanity stubbornly to this day, even though they may go on to drain the planet, namely you, of life in the future. If that's not a masochist, I don't know what is."

"Jumping to conclusion too much here, Yuki!?" Gaia asked back, eyes shooting up in indignation.

Yggdra, meanwhile, just laughs at our banter. Despite the heated words earlier, we haven't put much bite into any of them. Truthfully, we have no hard feelings with each other when the black stain that is Lyssa has been wiped clean from the face of the planet. In a way, this conversation today has marked the end of another chapter in our hopefully long lives. Up next will be just good old politicking and war, rinse and repeat until it's done, starting with the conference in Stockholm.

But before that, may as well get some family time while I still can.