The days after Monfroy’s estate settled into something John hadn’t let himself have in a while. No raids. No masks. Just Monster Paradise, wide open and waiting.
Ythera’s Verdant Ember Core pills went out on the third morning, one to every Monster and every Tamer who’d stabilized fully at peak Mythical-rank. Nobody rushed it. She insisted on that part specifically.
"Rushed breakthroughs crack," she said, laying the last tray out on the grass. "I’d rather you all take an extra day than spend the next century managing a hairline fracture in your own soul."
Nobody argued with her.
...
Alfred went first, the way he always did. Gold-red light bled up through his fur and settled into something deeper and darker, edged with the same starlight that had marked him since his Eldritch evolution.
[Alfred: Ruinmaw Tyrant of the Black Stars]
[Rank: Calamity, First Stage]
[Strength: 20,000 | Defense: 20,000 | Speed: 20,000]
[Calamity Core: 60,000 / 60,000]
One by one, the rest followed. Pymon’s shriek this time rattled windows on three separate islands. Rexion’s scales rippled through colors nobody had names for yet. Terravax simply sat down afterward and refused to move for an hour, claiming he needed to "properly appreciate the moment."
[Pymon: Heavenpiercer Aurustrax Skylord] [Rank: Calamity, First Stage] [Strength: 20,000 | Defense: 20,000 | Speed: 20,000] [Calamity Core: 60,000 / 60,000]
[Rexion: Runeheart Imperian Embercreast Draconis] [Rank: Calamity, First Stage] [Strength: 20,000 | Defense: 20,000 | Speed: 20,000] [Calamity Core: 60,000 / 60,000]
[Levi: Nihilweaver Dreadlace Matriarch] [Rank: Calamity, First Stage] [Strength: 20,000 | Defense: 20,000 | Speed: 20,000] [Calamity Core: 60,000 / 60,000]
[Terravax: Verdant Crown Turtle] [Rank: Calamity, First Stage] [Strength: 20,000 | Defense: 20,000 | Speed: 20,000] [Calamity Core: 60,000 / 60,000]
[Chronavael: Temporal Flowmon Stag] [Rank: Calamity, First Stage] [Strength: 20,000 | Defense: 20,000 | Speed: 20,000] [Calamity Core: 60,000 / 60,000]
[Noctelith: Syrrakhel Doomreign Noctelith] [Rank: Calamity, First Stage] [Strength: 20,000 | Defense: 20,000 | Speed: 20,000] [Calamity Core: 60,000 / 60,000]
Yuna and Emberlune broke through together, laughing the entire way through it. Azelis and Volkia followed in careful, measured silence. Jibril and Tidereign went last, and Tidereign’s scream of delight sent every bird on the first island scattering into the sky at once.
[Yuna] [Rank: Calamity, First Stage] [Strength: 20,000 | Defense: 20,000 | Speed: 20,000] [Calamity Core: 60,000 / 60,000]
[Emberlune] [Rank: Calamity, First Stage] [Strength: 20,000 | Defense: 20,000 | Speed: 20,000] [Calamity Core: 60,000 / 60,000]
[Azelis] [Rank: Calamity, First Stage] [Strength: 20,000 | Defense: 20,000 | Speed: 20,000] [Calamity Core: 60,000 / 60,000]
[Volkia] [Rank: Calamity, First Stage] [Strength: 20,000 | Defense: 20,000 | Speed: 20,000] [Calamity Core: 60,000 / 60,000]
[Jibril] [Rank: Calamity, First Stage] [Strength: 20,000 | Defense: 20,000 | Speed: 20,000] [Calamity Core: 60,000 / 60,000]
[Tidereign] [Rank: Calamity, First Stage] [Strength: 20,000 | Defense: 20,000 | Speed: 20,000] [Calamity Core: 60,000 / 60,000]
"Well," Yuna said, flexing a hand and grinning at nothing in particular, "I could probably punch a mountain now and mean it this time."
"You said that last time too," John pointed out.
"And I was right last time too. I’m simply more right now."
Noctelith tested its new gravity well almost immediately, folding a small boulder in on itself with a soft, unassuming pop. It looked almost bashful when everyone turned to stare.
’It was an accident,’ Noctelith said. ’A pleasant one.’
Chronavael pawed at the ground once, antlers catching the light, and the little hourglass crowning them spun visibly faster than it had that morning. He said nothing at all, but the small, satisfied huff that followed needed no translation.
...
Sparring resumed within the hour, and the whole first island quickly learned the difference between Mythical-rank chaos and Calamity-rank chaos the hard way.
Jibril and Azelis squared off first, and their opening exchange cracked the ground open in a line thirty feet long. Both of them stared at the fissure for a moment, then kept fighting like nothing had happened.
"We’re paying for that," Azelis said, mid-swing.
"We’re not paying anyone," Jibril said. "We own the island."
Yuna’s turn came next. She immediately opened the Sixfold Halo’s Full Bloom before anyone had finished setting the rules, narrating Azelis’s next three moves out loud with theatrical relish, until Vhastra finally tackled her out of pure principle.
"That’s cheating," Vhastra said, pinning her with obvious satisfaction.
"It’s not cheating if I warn everyone first," Yuna wheezed from underneath her.
Elsewhere, Kaelstrom had taken to shadowing Terravax around the island, matching his slow pace step for step. The two of them had developed what could only be described as a quiet, wordless friendship, built entirely around napping in the same patch of sun.
...
Starry’s three sons staged their own tournament overhead, looping and diving through a course of floating rings Pymon had apparently built for them out of pure boredom, and Draconite Bloodlight Worm cheered every pass from its favorite branch with an enthusiasm that seemed entirely disproportionate to its size.
Digger Worm, for its part, had simply tunneled straight through the center of the sparring ground and popped up directly behind Azelis mid-fight, which nobody had expected and which cost her the match outright.
"That’s not fair," she said, brushing dirt off her shoulder.
"Digger Worm doesn’t know what fair means," John said, laughing. "That’s honestly the best part."
Someone suggested football again around midday, though nobody ever fully agreed on who. This time Levi volunteered as referee, purely so she could keep quietly cheating in everyone’s favor at once, void-threads nudging the ball offside just often enough that both teams ended up equally furious with her.
"You’re supposed to be neutral," Yuna accused, pointing an outraged finger.
’I am neutral,’ Levi said. ’I simply enjoy chaos evenly distributed.’
Terravax, once again permanent goalkeeper, stopped every single shot without moving more than a few inches. By the end of the match he’d accumulated a small pile of frustrated players slumped against his shell.
...
Down at the alchemy tower, Becky and Vaelirash had settled into a friendly, ongoing rivalry over whose potency readings were more accurate. Ythera refereed with the patient amusement of someone who’d stopped needing to referee days ago.
"Becky’s dosage was correct," Becky insisted, puffing up.
’By half a measure,’ Vaelirash said. ’Which still counts as correct, but only barely.’
"Both of you are correct enough that I’m no longer worried about either of you," Ythera said, and the two of them seemed to take that as a personal victory each.
...
That evening, the whole group ended up back around the same fire that never seemed to fully go out. They sprawled loose and easy under three dimming suns, and for a long while nobody felt any particular need to fill the quiet with anything at all.
Emberlune curled against Yuna’s side, nine tails wrapped loose around both of them. Alfred stretched out flat with his head in John’s lap, entirely unbothered by his own new rank, and Kaelstrom eventually worked up the courage to lie down close enough that his shoulder brushed Terravax’s shell.
Vhastra and Vaelirash traded quiet stories about the centuries before any of them had met, and for once neither story ended in chains.
John caught Jibril’s eyes across the flames at one point, and neither of them looked away as quickly as either probably should have.
"Enjoy it while it lasts," Chuthulos said quietly, drifting down beside him. "Because tomorrow, Mr. Tauren has an appointment, and something tells me Kyvena isn’t planning to let this be the last time she sees you."