The train may have been faster than a car ride, but it still took five days to make it from East City to Sunset City. Lauren spent most of her time fidgeting and thinking of Nadalia. Rita clutched the hat and paced up and down the train, even speaking with the conductor a few times. Melody and Foa rode without issue. Valentina spent most of her time in the dining car since it allowed smoking. Ume meditated often, and Sange would join her. Giselle fidgeted just as much as Lauren, and her wi

 Overnight, the journeyors stayed in a town south of Clan Kabe, on the western side of the mountains. It was where all those who had reached the clan but had failed to pass the clan’s trials of induction lived, filled with strong individuals not strong enough for the clan. This town is where Clan Kabe drew from for challengers on their path. No resident batted an eye at Lauren and company’s presence. Its buildings were much more sized for the bulk of the journeyors, and it had a similar

 At the eastern base of those east-most mountains, an outpost city lay, an architectural alloy of designs from across the realms of the Siblings, moreso than any other city or village in the Sunset Realm. It had the pagodas, machiyas, hanoks, and siheyuans one might find in any Sunset Realm village, small city, or clan holdout, and it had the timber-framed houses common across the Core Realm. There were the log houses of the Freezing Realm and the domūs of the Coarse Realm. Art deco exteri

 In a reverse of their passage from the mudflats to the desert, the temperature decreased for the journeyors as they marched on from the riverbank. Frost grew on the grasses of the plain. Alike their night in the desert, Foa’s disposition increased, while the rest took on the cold with varying degrees of acceptability, with Valentina at the bottom. Snow began to fall, and the farther they journeyed into the plain, more snow fell. There would be no question of who took the next challenge.&

 Early the next morning, Ume visited the five-level pagoda before the journeyors’ departure, and she returned with the news that on Onibasu’s word, Clan Kako Jamulsoe would be disseminating their history throughout the Sunset Realm in a measured method. Lauren wondered what Nevgman’s reaction would be to the clan acting antithetical to her founding instructions. She likely was aware of their potential to follow that course of action; Nevmgan may have sat on her mountain, distant from

 Lauren sat by the hotel pool. It was close to midnight. The moon was near its zenith, surrounded by stars that would converge for the sun come morning. She had a whole bottle of sake, which she had purchased from the hotel bar. In her right hand, she held the talisman of the Protective Core. She had been staring at it for the past two hours, between bouts of pacing her sake. “Only one more task,” Lauren whispered. She kissed the talisman and put it in her bag. She took a swig

 Although the difficulty at the gates of Clan Kako Jamulsoe had left the journeyors troubled, the hotel which the clan had reserved for them was nice and comfortable. However, they were restless and tired of in travel lodgings, so they almost immediately left the hotel to walk around the shallow city. Ume and Uri went off on their own on unspecified business, while Lauren and the rest went to find food. They ended up having a late lunch of braised pork, udon, steamed dumplings, tea, sake, a

 Lauren awoke with a gentle yawn. She got out of the low bed, orange peel dropping from her body. She shook off the drowsiness. She decided to step outside of the small domicile to feel the morning air on her bare skin, doubtful that anyone would make a fuss about her exposure. She opened the door and stepped out in the cool, forest air. Immediately, she was greeted with the sight of Melody, grinning with miscreancy and holding a handful of vines. It was also shadier than Lauren expected, a

 From the air, Lauren’s view of the Supreme Succubus could hardly be beat. Kumo Ke was lanky like her counterpart, but her chest was massive, not just for her size. Lauren had been under the impression that the each Supreme Succubi matched their local Grand Sorceress, so the lack of a flatter chest stumped Lauren. The famous vines grew from Kumo Ke’s sides up to her underarm, alike fringe, and a few could be seen growing from her shoulders. Doubtless, there were more unseen on her exter

 Lauren opened her eyes, and that action made her mind speed up. The first thing she noticed was her surroundings – womb walls of a spacious width, no forested river to be seen. The second thing she noticed was that she was alone – no Uri on her additionals, no Melody chasing her for said additionals, and no Sange, Valentina, or Foa. The third thing she noticed was that she had not been unconscious in spite of the eye-opening – no gaps in her memory either. Her fir

Another six days passed from when the journeyors dealt with Clan Qi-Zhàng. According to Ume, the amount of distance between the last clan and the next would be the longest between any on their route. Ume stayed the main driver, but her mother took over the responsibility every so often. Lauren drove too, but Ume sat in the passenger seat on those occasions, giving Lauren directions. That great plain which surrounded the clan of magic-blockers transitioned into a mixture of grasslands and pocket

The elevator lowered.Deep into the island they went, their downward path taking more than one minute, two minutes, and five minutes. The farther into the ground they went, the stronger that rhythm was felt, the louder the sound of ruffling pages blew through their ears. Lauren began to suspect what they would encounter, and Del gave her a look that carried those same suspicions.“I must explain more of the situation,” Leonora said, hands behind her back. “法師 and by extension you all vie

After getting settled and having another hour of casual conversation where Ume and Uri caught up with Hǔpò, most of the journeyors left to explore the town. Giselle, Sange, and Del stayed behind with Uri and Hǔpò, though the latter did go outside to meet Melody and Rita (and Stringer). Ume showed the rest around 冷村. It was not the largest village, but Ume pointed out as many landmarks as she could. Foa determined that the town must have a large population descended from the Freezing Real

 About the time Lauren was regaining consciousness, as a portion of milk herself, a flow beset her, and she poured out with much more of Uri’s milk – into a thirsting gullet. Lauren’s creamy form splashed down into a stomach. The acids sizzled at her liquid mass. Alike a certain absent friend, Lauren combined herself with the rest of the available milk, after a short time, and she discovered that all that milk packed the stomach round and full. She felt no more milk adding to her bulk

 A day passed as Clan Peaceful-Death verified that no more of the unusual restless spirits remained in the graveyard. Lauren spent that time by meditating on the graveyard by playing a tonkori she found in the recreation center as she stared over the wall from near the tram platform – and by avoiding Uri’s lustful petitions. Her sister Del helped more in the garden. Giselle passed most of the day by flying high above on her golden wings, even going as far to the next closest peak. Valen

 “That should not be,” Edowādo said, visage troubled. “The dead eating the dead,” Abenanka said, shaking her head in disbelief. “It’s unheard of.” “You’re telling me,” Lauren said, looking at where the spirits had been. “The 長 was wrong,” Edowādo muttered. “We never could have solved this.” “We don’t have the procedure,” Abenanka said, placing her hand on Edowādo’s shoulder. “How is this possible?” Edowādo asked. �

 Lauren awoke alone with the taste of milk on her lips. She had let Uri out at one point in the night and drunk “straight from the tap”, but the busty mother of her friend was nowhere to be seen. Lauren redressed, fingercombing her shortened hair, and took another bottle of milk out of the fridge. Sipping, the farmer pulled open the paper door to leave, finding Ume standing right outside. Instead of the armored outfit that Lauren had come to expect Ume to wear, she instead was garbed in

 They drove all day, and they drove all night. Ume stayed at the wheel the whole duration. Even when Lauren volunteered to take over driving responsibilities so that Ume could rest, the seeker refused, citing in a mumble something about licenses. Ume even came back from a stop at a refueling station with four bottles of coffee, a milkless black bubble tea, and an energy drink. It was at that station, incidentally, that Lauren learned their van vehicle was powered both by gasoline and by ele

 With Ume squarely in Lauren’s colon and Foa’s face lodged firmly in her buttocks, Lauren had not so much created space in Rita’s cramped stomach as moved it around. Foa’s antlers were digging into Lauren’s back and Sange’s left arm while Lauren’s Ume-filled guts squished Valentina against the opposite stomach wall. Sange’s breasts rested on Lauren’s head, and one downward motion could likely send Lauren into the bottomless cleavage of the Vampire. Rita’s stomach then sh

 Ume drove the journeyors eastward down a secluded yet wide road. An evergreen forest of spruces and pines surrounded the base of the mountain. An occasional car would pass their own, filled with faithful on the way to the shrine. After ten minutes, the secluded road joined with a more public road shaded by less trees, and after another five, Ume brought the vehicle onto a small highway where she flipped on cruise control and started steering with one hand. Dozens of cars passed by the minu

 Lauren woke up in the bungalow’s bed. She was naked, as she had been when she had fallen asleep. Looking over to her right, she saw Sange laying in the bed next to her, soundly asleep, which meant that all of her friends had most likely reformed while Lauren had been sleeping. Lauren swung her legs over the edge of the bed, but when she placed them down, her feet did not hit the rigid floor. They instead sunk into softness. In the darkness, Lauren looked down to see the vague outline of

 From suneate to yugake, the newcomer’s entire armored outfit was black, except for the orange helmet. The masking helmet bore the features of an eagle, as much as Lauren could tell through the stylization and metal. A scroll was tucked into the cord acting as the figure’s belt. The gray-silver of the guandao’s steel blade matched the cloudy sky above. The stranger offered no greeting, no threat nor words of any kind. The gate behind them spoke more. “A 星探,” Ume said.&nbs