A Apartment in Earth:

"Is Cecil going to get any better?" Star Tulip asked.

"I'm not sure" Star Rose said, shaking her head.

For the last few days Cecil was in a catatonic state. He had grown back to half his original size but was completely unresponsive and continued to talk to nobody in particular. Just hearing him talk to an Ingrid that was no longer there was hard to listen to.

Not even the familiars could get through to him. The strangest part of all was that he was completely devoid of all Mana and Life Force. Yet he continued to move, to talk, to shout and argue.

"Athena’s going to get a heart attack when she sees you dressed like that, Ingrid…" The hollow shell of a slime said. “If you can even call that ‘dressed’, Japanese shibari, S&M limb leathers, and a hero scarf…like what are you supposed to be? Ingrid the sexy maso-kunoichi in Isekai-land? Ah but who cares, we’re already dead…well of course the only reason you’re turning heads is because everyone else sees you as a walking, talking pit-bull…okay a pet T-rex with functional arms… yeah, of course you’d say T-rex because you miss that Happy Dino suit…”

Star Juniper hurriedly left the room, followed by all the other familiars.

Star Rose got up too.

"I'm going to get some fresh air."

Star Tulip was going to say something...she knew what the phrase meant. Every time Star Rose claimed to need to go out to get fresh air meant she was going to do something.

“FROM RIVERDALE NORTH CAROLINA, WEIGHING IN AT A SECRET NUMBER OF POUNDS…THE UNDISPUTED...! COOKIE-WEIGHT...! CHAMPYAAAAAN AAAV THE WUUUUURLD!” THE HOLLOW SLIME MOCKINGLY CALLED.

___

At the same in Autumnhollow, Terragalia:

Arek was quiet for a while, digesting the information as Philia related the earthlings’ situation.

“Gotcha, well, what can I do to help? It seems you’re pretty much well set over there, Philia.”

“For one we need to piggyback off of your router, yours is like Fort Knox over there.” Philia began. “I can’t promise on it yet, but as soon as I can see if it’s possible, I’m sure you wouldn’t object to some real gold.”

“Shit man.” Arek laughed on the other hand, making strange clicking sounds. “Send some black plague too,why don’t you? Are you trying to crash the economy here?”

“We’re dead, Arek.” Ingrid said, speaking through her earpiece. “Our duties to Earth have been fulfilled, now we’re bystanders just like you. Besides, you know what some countries on Earth will do if they find a place like this.”

“I will call Taffy and have him burn Earth to the ground if they do.” Philia said menacingly.

“Noted. Well, but still, that’s pretty cold of you, Star Lily.” Arek said. “But I guess that’s what dying does. Sure, I’m in. This is going to be no different from what I usually do anyway.”

“You know those pre-sapient lemurs you talked about back then that were being conscripted in some Kotovoan planet’s military?” Philia said. “We got some adorable gun-toting mice here that are big enough to comfortably hold an assault rifle.”

Arek laughed again. “Damn, girl! You sure you’re Philia and not Melrondia? Why are you arming the first fuzzy little critters you see?”

Ingrid spoke up “I just wanna make sure they can protect themselves, that’s all.”

"Cool, so what do you need? More guns?" Arek asked.

“Gasoline.” Philia said “I stole an ATV-”

“What kind?” Arek asked.

“It’s an Atvoros Shaman 8x8 wheeler-”

“I take it back, that gold you’ll be sending me won’t crash the economy,” Arek guffawed “That atrocious gas consumption that thing does will just even things out.”

“Can it be arranged, though?” Ingrid asked.

“Sure, I can pay it out of my pocket, Intergalactic credits are a hundred-sixty bucks to one. Even if you add the hush money from the gestapo, that shouldn’t bite me in the ass that hard for the first shipment of say, fifty barrels. But after that, I better see some gold, they do audits on space welfare checks you know, and I’m not legally allowed to be on Earth anyway. But why do you need me exactly to prepare some stuff that is earth-produced anyway? You just said you have a roadroller and excavator not to mention guns.” Arek said.

“Location, Arek.” Philia replied “Guns are sorta easy, military bases are common knowledge to me, so are producers of vehicles like Scania and CAT. Big locations where it’s easy to think they’re misplaced, but I can only do so much before someone thinks there’s magic involved. But stuff ‘legally’ bought and shipped to Farmer Grace’s place? Nobody should care.”

“Makes sense…” Arek said. “What about the other Starchasers, you sure you don’t want to contact them?”

“Arek, what do you think will happen if I tell them we’ve Isekai’d here? They’re going to be more careless and even if they do Isekai here or wherever else, what exactly can we do?” Ingrid said. “Sure, Philia might be able to bring things over, but living things? She’s tried, and nothing worked.”

“Now you’re making me think I’m not getting my gold.” Arek said.

Philia stared at the floor. “Guess just piggy-backing off of your WiFi will do for now…”

“Relax, you’ll still get that stuff, but the next shipment of anything as big as that gasoline’s gonna wait. Still, you just need the location, right?”

Philia’s face lit up. “Yes! Just knowing the location of a depot would work.”

“I’ll let you know any scummy company’s depots then. Talk to you guys later,I still have farm chores to run.” Arek said, signing off.

“Good to hear your voice again too, buddy.” Ingrid replied.

Philia sighed in relief as Zefir brought Autumnhollow back. Without any prompting, the mice dumped a bucket of water of the bonfire and quickly began erasing all traces that someone had been here, squeaking industriously as they did so.

“I’ve never taught them that.” Ingrid remarked.

“They’re intelligent creatures, Ingrid.” Siria said “You could walk by a hundred Tixi mice burrows and you wouldn’t know because they’re that good at hiding their homes.

“Huh, guess we shouldn’t assume about this dimensional backyard’s borders, it’s a lot bigger than we thought.” Zefir said as the mice waddled back in, squeaking to each other with brooms and camping gear slung over their shoulders.

Philia spoke up “Well that settles it, we take the ATV for most of the trip and then take the last mile to Teth-Odin. Ingrid, we’ve already did our paperwork, so we’re clear to go as soon as we’re done with all of this…” gesturing to all of her still unpacked things.

“Alrighty, now let’s see what other stuff you’ve packed away…”

“Obviously enough drums of gasoline to put me in a watch list, that’s for sure.” Philia said. “More ammunition, grenades and rockets. Spare parts for Neith…”

“Observer drone detects unknown sheep-like entity approaching Autumnhollow. Context from previous radio transmissions suggest it is the Felmoon Iohann.” Neith said.

“I guess she’s done with her work at the hospital. I’ll go greet her.” Philia said. “Come along Ingrid, you’re the boss so you need to meet your latest teammate.”

“Iohann registered.” Neith said. Wordlessly, she had the drone resume it’s patrol once she saw Ingrid and Philia greet the newcomer. Meanwhile she walked back to the house.

Cecil hovered over and asked “Say Neith… think you can multi-task and operate this one too?” he poked himself out of the DW portal and dangled from his body a ground drone.

Like Neith, it had four legs, albeit stubby, and set on a fixed downward pointing angle, ending in ball-like wheels mounted on rotating “feet” at the bottom. The drone had a round, cylindrical capsule body and a pair of stubby claw arms.

“That is a Hi-Tronics X2600 companion bot.” Neith said. “Pairing with the device is a non-issue and will not interfere with my primary goal as assistant porter. What do you have in mind?”

“I know you have an aversion to violence.” Cecil said “Which is why I think you could help us here at the portal by controlling the gadgets on the caddy.” he pointed at the array of lights and cameras

“Easy.” Neith said. The drone blinked its lights and beeped to life. “Use my call-sign HTX to address the drone directly.”

___

As Viel got to work unloading the rest of Philia’s belongings onto the second patio, Zefir found that he could keep walking and walking, unlike Cecil’s this place had no barrier.

“We could build a town here.” Zefir said to Kvaris who accompanied him.

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“Who would want to build a town that moves around though?” Kvaris asked. “Your only way to survive here is agriculture and fishing, and probably lumber if we can reach those forests ‘behind’ the portal.”

“True, but we could also hire farmers to grow our own wheat and other produce and maybe in time heads of livestock, we’ll be truly self-sufficient… assuming we can find reliable farmers to do that.”

“If we do, you will have to stay here.” Kvaris said. “It will be very inconvenient, even dangerous if we’ve put our belongings here and you’ve been harmed. And if we put farmers or other people in here you will need your own bodyguards.”

“We’ll take it one at a time then…” Zefir sighed, conceding her point. It was inevitable that one day, The Whales will gain more recognition and soon, someone was going to enter Autumnhollow under orders from someone suspicious.

“We should reconsider your role as a porter.” Kvaris said. “Staying here is our best chance.”

“But I’ll be bored here!” Zefir said. Of course he was half-lying. Neith just revealed he now had a working internet and could spend days and days as a NEET, access to Autumnhollow was his contribution to the group but he was afraid that not everyone would take kindly to him “just sitting around, doing nothing.”

Kvaris sniffed at him “You’re not being truthful.”

“Yes, I won’t be bored here, mostly. But what will the others think? ‘Zefir just sits around Autumnhollow doing nothing. Why should I work any harder?’ it’s possible some people will think of that.”

Kvaris an arm around him “You’ll only be doing nothing during the day.” she said, her face really close.

The wolf-girl and cat-boy shared a quick smooch on the lips, their tails wrapping around each other.

“Fine, but you girls take good care of each other, okay?” Zefir said, putting an arm around her waist. “I want all of you around the table for supper.”

“Ooooh, at the dining hall? What an impatient boy.” Kvaris grinned, baring her big canines.

Zefir smiled. “You leave me without you guys for hours, of course I’m going to get lonely.”

Kvaris chuckled, putting an arm around his shoulder and steering him back to the house.

“You and I are going to have a lot of pups together one day…The Enthana Dynasty is going to be Veles’ number one merchant house, I can almost smell it.”

“Is that even possible?”

___

Iohann of the Treanthorn Tribe shifted the straps of her backpack as she made her way past the grasslands, now colored gold by the kiss of the setting sun. Of protection she had a mace that dangled from her hip, but she wasn’t concerned about any wild animal attacks, the Red Moon had just taken place and the scent of blood of hundreds if not thousands of carcasses would have driven away any predators looking to lurk at the edges of the farmlands that formed the perimeter of New Gorpisal.

There was a lot of replanting going on, and the farmers were working gleefully as they spread the fertilizer from the Red Moon-infused carcasses, eager to see super-sized crops that would grow in a matter of days. She had just finished her rounds in the infirmaries set up at New Gorpisal and when she was working on an old acquiantance of hers; Zardos, he had then recommended that she join The Whales, who had been honored in the town as local heroes for their contribution to the battle last night.

Following Philia’s instructions earlier, she made her way to the Gorpisal Forest, looking for the wooden pole that been planted on the ground. She saw it, it was colored white and a scarf had been tied to it, flapping in the air.

“Once you see the pole and banner, head straight into the forest, you’ll see more of them…” was Philia’s instructions. There were two more that she found by walking in a straight line and it was there in a clearing that she saw Philia and another girl step out of thin air to greet her.

“Welcome Iohann!” The human girl said cheerily. “I’m Ingrid Lily, leader of the whales, please step this way..” she said, holding her hand.

Apparently some kind of advanced spell was hiding their camp, but what she saw after taking a few steps inside was more than just a simple gathering of tents around a bonfire.

It was a full-sized house built in the fashion of some unknown country. She had never seen so many fairy lights installed on a single house much less on the outside. A few black poles loomed overhead, it’s lantern-like fairy lights preventing anyone from stumbling against the smallest stone, the forecourt or patio that surrounded the house was spacious enough to host a small party, In one corner rested a wagon, but at the opposite stood an iron wagon of immense proportions, it’s wheels nearly the size of a man.

Could it be some sort of siege engine? Iohann wondered. It looked too big and too heavy for just a few people to push around.

Scattered throughout the forecourt were several barrels and crates which were being opened up by Kinu and Siria. Helping them was a floating portal where a slime lived. As the portal flew about, she could see glimpses of a some kind of outdoor patio or balcony as they took unknown objects from the crates.

“Welcome to Autumnhollow.” Ingrid said. “This is our dimensional house. It goes without saying that you can’t be telling this to anyone.”

“I understand.” Iohann said. “I’m guessing we will stay here between our exploits at the dungeons of Teth-Odin. Of course we’ll need to walk but I suppose the comforts of this house are second-to-none.”

“Exactly.” Ingrid said. “I needed to hold your hand because unless someone actually guides you, you’ll be unable to find your way here and get turned around.”

“I see…” Iohann replied.

“Now ideally, we don’t intend for you to fight at all. Just like our cute little Viel here.” Ingrid said, affectionately rubbing the young ciltran’s shoulders, causing her to meow affectionately. “But seeing as you are armed, I’d like to make sure you’re properly equipped should combat arise. Do you have any preferences? We have a Wand of Duality that could let you switch between weapons as well as a Ring of Apport to spare…”

“Well, I am partial to flails, Saint Ygris The Merciful is also a patron saint of harvest… of course, large two-handed flails aren’t also convenient to carry around…” As she spoke, she noticed the slime was writing it down on a tiny little book.

“Got it.” Cecil said. “Tomorrow we’ll pick up the Mythril gun parts for Arthur and Sully, a flail for Iohann, … what else do we need to pick up for tomorrow?”

There was a pause as everyone looked at each other.

“Zefir was considering if we could one day build a town here.” Kvaris began. “It seems there’s plenty of space, the ground looks fertile enough. In theory if we bring in farmers, cattle-herders, and fishermen we could have our own town and grow our own food.”

There were murmurs of assent as everyone considered the idea. Kvaris cleared her throat and brought up some points, however.

“We can’t just bring anyone here after all, we need to consider the cost and benefits for us and these farmers.” She said. “They need to be comfortable in the idea that we’re adventuring and would be moving from city to city. There may be days where they can’t even leave Autumnhollow at all. That’s the criteria such inhabitants need to meet.”

“We also need to have our ammunition worked on.” Philia said “that requires skill and they have to be someone we can trust. This is a difficult proposition to fulfill, but if we do find the right people I am in agreement.”

The others assented. Ingrid tabled the matter for now, focusing on what they need to do next.

“For starters let’s get the gasoline barrels somewhere where they can’t harm anyone…” Ingrid said.

“What are are we looking at here?” Siria asked.

“Gasoline catches fire easily for one thing…” Ingrid said, eyeing the large lakeside portal. “We should store the ATV and the gasoline somewhere where even if something bad happens, the fire will be contained. Something lots of of gravel or soil…”

Ingrid started heading towards the portal as she hadn’t had a look yet.

Gwen looked up at the darkening sky, “I should get started with supper then…” heading off to the house. Viel followed suit alongside the mice which squeaked excitedly, hurriedly taking off their armor before jumping out the portal of Cecil’s room to join them.

“A temple dedicated to the gods would definitely help.” Iohann said.

“That requires builders…” Siria remarked. “We may end up staying in New Gorpisal much longer than we expect to at this rate…”

“We could always find them in Teth-Odin.” Kvaris reasoned “that is where skilled and talented people would go to anyway.”

“I could ask around the people of Ontala, there’s no telling how much damage was done to their homes during the Red Moon…” Zefir suggested.

Philia looked at him “Who would want to leave their homes forever just because they had a Red Moon?”

___

Farmer Grace’s house, Kansas:

“Talk to you guys later,I still have farm chores to run.” Arek said, signing off. The man-sized alien lobster-like Gulan pondered his next course. Truthfully he had no problems spending his own dime to help Philia and Ingrid, but he wanted to set the appropriate expectations.

It then started to make sense now. The news of the large-scale theft of ammunition, fuel, and weapons, including missing warheads, which had been attributed to criminal gangs and rogue militant groups, was Philia’s doing. As was the theft of Neith which had been stored in a secret facility. How Philia pulled Neith to Terragalia despite not knowing the location was a plot hole he couldn’t fathom but chalked it up to the robot having her residual mana on it.

Arek for a moment chuckled to himself. It was quite ironic that Philia’s actions despite no longer being corrupted had put Earth close to yet another pointless internecine war as she pulled various machines in and caused the world’s nations to blame each other for it. In a sense she had done more damage as Philia 2.0 than as the Dark Queen Melrondia.

There was however one problem he couldn’t discuss with them. It was mentioned that Cecil had lost all contact with his graft here on Earth.

The last he had talked to Star Rose about the matter, he had paid a visit to Philia and Ingrid’s grave at Arlington. Officially, Ingrid Blair and Philia Lovelock had been listed as missing, information intentionally left out of the public zeitgeist to protect their families. No bodies were ever found given the nature of their final battle, but the government still found it fit to afford them a heroes’ grave.

Ironically, Arek’s alien nature as well as involvement with the Starchasers was met with no curiosity as the only ones who attended the ceremony were a few people who could be trusted.

As the Starchasers wept, Arek’s mandibles uncontrollably clicked in pain; his species’ way of mourning. The soldiers aimed their rifles into the air and fired off shots of salute to the two fallen unknown soldiers of humanity. Only Star Rose stoically stood at salute, though her eyes were tearing up.

But it was the little graft of Cecil that tore at everyone’s heart as the little slime kept shouting in a little squeaky voice “Ingrid! Take the last of my mana! Let’s make this count!”

Back in the present, the lobster-like alien’s mandibles clickled harshly again. He was glad to hear their voice. Part of him wondered if it was really them, but regardless of who it really was, he now knew what should be done with the little graft of Cecil.

The number he had been dialing hadn’t been responding so he tried another. At the third number, he finally got someone to respond.

“Arek?” the familiar voice on the other end had lost all its usual bubblyness.

“Cindy, it’s me.” Arek said quickly. “Sorry, I can’t explain it right now, but can we meet? It’s about Cecil.”

“You know something about Cecil?” Cindy said curiously. “Athena’s heading over to Taffy right now.”

“Shit!” Arek swore venomously “Listen! Whatever you do, do NOT let Cecil get to Taffy’s hands! …or hooves! This is important!”

“What’s going on, Arek?”

“Take Cecil with you, Cindy!” Arek said urgently, “and come over here now!”

There was a pause on the other line.

“Is it that bad that you can’t tell me?” Cindy said slowly.

“Cindy… this isn’t the time to act like a bimbo cheerleader in a horror movie! You’re a Starchaser for fuck’s sake!” Arek half-yelled down the line, his mandible scratching the air in annoyance.

There was a sound of footsteps as Cindy shuffled along the floor. “This is for Cecil, right?”

___

“For Cecil, and all of you.” Arek said.

Cindy brushed off her moroseness aside. Quietly opening the door to the room where they kept Cecil, who was babbling on about stories of Ingrid in his little terrarium.

“Get this, George! And then Ingrid! She picks up a steel pipe…and!”

Cindy quickly found what she was looking for. It was a small little box, enough for Cecil to fit in and compact enough to hide.

Transforming into Star Tulip, she quickly stuffed him in the box. Cecil ignored her, still busy telling his story to an invisible audience. She opened the window and before leaping out tried to make it look like Cecil had escaped by leaving the lid half opened, laying down some furniture to make it look like it was knocked down, then leaving a window ajar to make it look like he slipped through there. Cindy took the other window, hovering in the air to close it before she rocketted off into the sky to fly south.

“Hold on Cecil…” Star Tulip said tearfully. “We’ll fix you up!”

___