Bastet’s tail gave a slow, thoughtful sweep across the stone.

"On the matter of ’how long this will last,’" she said, "I believe I should note that I do not think it will take months. A day or two at most, in my estimation."

Aria’s head turned toward her, genuinely curious.

"Are you saying that based on fact, or feeling?"

"Feeling."

Bastet’s ears twitched, and the slyest grin yet pulled at her mouth.

"But you should not underestimate the intuition of a genius felinid queen such as I."

Alice finally released Alexandra after one more tight squeeze, and Alexandra stepped back, smoothing her dark demonic maid attire with hands that were still a little shaky from the hauling.

Then she turned to Kaiden.

She crossed the short distance between them.

And stepped into his chest.

Her arms wound around his waist, her cheek pressed to the center of his torso, and she stayed there. Quiet and unhurried.

"Thank you, Kai."

Her voice was muffled against him.

"For respecting my resolve."

Kaiden’s hand settled between her shoulder blades on a second’s delay.

Behind him, Aria’s silver eyes narrowed a fraction.

"Aren’t you getting a bit too comfortable with hugging him, Alexa?"

Her tone was conversational. Calm. Underneath, the Yandere Princess was peering out with open suspicion.

"Yeah," Luna, silent in the corner of the Safe Zone with her arms crossed, called, "shameless blondie went from never daring to even make eye contact with him to taking her very first opportunity to plaster herself all over him."

Alexandra’s flush went from pink to full incandescent red.

But.

She did not immediately let go.

"This is simply a show of gratitude." Her voice was small but steady. "Kai has done a great deal for me."

"I’ve done a lot for you too," Luna countered immediately, pushing off the wall she’d been leaning against, "and I don’t see you clinging to me like a little kitten to its mother."

Alexandra’s blush deepened.

Then, slowly, it transformed.

A grin spread, shy at first, then positively mischievous by the end of it. She released Kaiden, took one step back, and turned to face Luna.

"You know," she said brightly, "you’re absolutely right. Let me correct that oversight immediately."

And she broke into a run, arms out, offering one giant hug.

Luna’s grin, which had been forming in anticipation of being right, froze.

The issue was visual.

Alexandra was wearing her typical maid uniform, the full piece, a tight black leather corset laced in red down the front, puffed sleeves that left her shoulders bare, a short flared skirt in black and red that swished high around her thick thighs, and garter straps clipped to lace-topped black thigh-highs that flashed under the hem with every stride.

The uniform was cute.

But the corset plunged so deep that the red lace trim at its top was little more than decoration, and every heavy, impact-absorbing bounce threatened to launch two very full swells straight out of the housing entirely.

Luna’s face went wry.

"Oh, fucking kill me."

She turned on her heel and bolted. "Nope, nope, nope! I’m not doing this!"

The sight of the Storm Valkyrie, the fastest member of the Sinners, the woman who had fought off an S-tier threat one-handed with her own severed limb in her teeth, sprinting away from a maid at full tactical retreat was not something Kaiden had been expecting to witness today.

"Hey!" Alexandra shouted, picking up speed. "Wait! I just want to express my gratitude properly!"

"Give it to me in writing, bitch!"

"What are you, my accountant? Friends express emotions physically!"

"Wear a hoodie and I might consider it! On second thought, no, that would not be good enough either!"

"Come on!"

Luna was a purple streak across the Safe Zone’s stone as she cut toward the Abyssal Cavern.

The Skyfiend that had just set down after delivering Bastet to the Safe Zone lifted its enormous head from where it had been preening a wing, its reptilian eyes fixing on the small purple creature hurtling toward it at full combat velocity with an expression that could only be described as dangerously alarmed.

Luna hit it at a sprint, planted one foot on its shoulder, and vaulted into the saddle ridge along its spine in a single motion.

"GO GO GO!"

The Skyfiend let out a startled, resonant cry - a deep, majestic creature’s bewildered complaint at being commandeered without ceremony - and flared its wings, talons scrabbling against the abyssal stone as it tried to process what was happening.

"Faster! A fat cow is threatening to trample me with her udders! A fate worse than death!"

Alexandra gave valiant chase for approximately eight meters, her blonde hair streaming behind her, her chest bouncing in a violent rhythm Luna had clearly clocked from the first step.

The Skyfiend unfurled its massive wings and pushed off the ground in a single thunderous downbeat that kicked dust across the entire Safe Zone. It shot up into the cavern airspace and headed toward the corridor at speed, its cry of bewildered protest echoing down the abyssal depths as it fled.

"So long, sucker! Go suffocate Kai with those murder weapons!" Luna shouted, her voice echoing a dozen times from the depths as it reached them.

Alexandra’s legs slowed.

Her arms dropped.

She planted her hands on her knees.

"...Okay," she wheezed. "Okay. I really need to hit the gym."

Her chest heaved with each drag of breath, deep and open, the top of her attire straining with every pull.

Then she broke into soft laughter.

It started low, a quiet giggle that shook her shoulders, then bloomed open and unguarded, her free hand coming up to cover her mouth. Her eyes crinkled at the corners. She was flushed, sweating, laughing into her palm. She hadn’t laughed that freely in a very long time.

Kaiden watched her with a small smile.

Aria’s grip on his arm tightened, and when Kaiden glanced down, her silver eyes had softened at the corners, the faintest curve on her lips as she watched Alexandra catch her breath across the Safe Zone.

Bastet’s tail flicked once, amused, and she let out a short, elegant laugh behind her hand.

Alice broke into delighted giggles beside Kaiden, all of them finding what had just happened amusing.

"Was anyone recording?" Alice asked.

"I always record when Kai is visible," Aria said as if that was totally normal.

"... Nice. Please upload it as a private video. I want to see it."

"Sure, little sis."

Kaiden shook his head at the exchange, exhaled through his nose, and crossed the Safe Zone to where Alexandra was still hunched over her knees recovering.

"Come on. Let’s get you and the bags inside."

Alexandra straightened, flushed and still breathing hard, and gave him a grateful nod.

The girls gathered around, each claiming a bag off the stone floor.

They turned together toward the Abyssal Corridor, where somewhere ahead, the commandeered Skyfiend’s bewildered cry was still echoing off the distant walls.

Kaiden’s awareness drifted, as it had a hundred times in the last hours, toward the system countdown hovering at the edge of his vision.

[Time Until Defense: 07:22:08]

Time to get to work. The real deal was about to begin, and with it, a confrontation of the likes the world has never seen.