AMBROSIAYazim Jianne had warned me about alternate realities, so I checked around Hinata for anything that looked odd, and seeing nothing, I rejoined the group. I went to the temple again, checked in to the hotel again, and then headed to the spring again. This was the key point! This was what I needed to change.

    I stripped off most of my clothes as before. I made certain all conditions were normal, and that things did happen like they were supposed to. Yazim Jianne warned me of the consequences of changing a parallel timeline too much. Satisfied that this was in fact the time and place I was supposed to be, I talked to Nevras.

    We ducked down into the springs at about shoulder level to keep warm with the icy rain. “There''s... there''s supposed to be no mixed bathing!” Nevras protested. I responded, “Yes, but you went into the wrong side. This is the women''s section.” I said it with less honesty this time, having planned it this time.

    Some time passed, in awkward silence. “The water is pretty nice,” Nevras said. I had to basically follow a script thus far to what almost led to a kiss, yet not appear to be repeating myself as I said, “You know, soon we''ll probably defeat Belial, and his people, what happens then?” Nevras asked me, “What do you mean?” I answered, “Well, after our quest, we might just split up and never travel together again. I want more time with you...” I leaned forward as if to kiss him. At that exact point, a bird was going to dive-bomb us, ruining our romantic time. But I grabbed that bird in midair, shocking and impressing Nevras. “Look, you,” I said to the bird, “I like birds as much as the next gal, but I want to kiss this guy and I''m not cool with you trying to stop me.” Then I gave the bird an uppercut, knocking it out and sending it flying.

    “Wait, you said you wanted to kiss me?” Nevras asked. Wasn''t it obvious?

    Trying again, we edged closer and closer, until our lips touched. For as second, they met, and then our lips moved with each other. A sort of hunger took over, and we had an urge to take each other''s clothes off. But, well we''d already done that since it was a hot spring, and I was not ready to lose my virginity just yet. So we instead focused on kissing. We broke the kiss for a second. Nevras explained, “You know, out in Phoenix, we have a saying...” My curiosity showed, “Oh?” He told me, “Every attack must be retaliated with equal force.” And then, he started kissing me back softly yet passionately. As our lips and sometimes our tongues blended together, I muttered, “Revenge...”

    NEVRAS

    That was fun! After having a nice time in the hot spring, we made our way to the beach, and enjoyed swimming there as well. It had stopped raining, and we saw Aqorm there. The two of us swam around, while we watched Aqorm body-board along the coast.

    As night came, we decided to chill out while the others hung out at the bar. We cuddled, and since Ambrosia was not yet up for sex, but we were too excited to just fall asleep, we asked the innkeeper, mostly using crude sign language since we couldn''t understand each other, if he had a Crystal Mirror we could watch something on. We wound up watching some show called Josh Kirby: Time Warrior. It was a television series that was broken into six feature-length episodes of about an hour and a half or so, about a kid who was time-traveling in what appeared to be a flying van on a quest to recover components of a device that would stop an evil scientist. It had a nice plot twist near the end, but all the episodes were so terribly done in terms of costumes and special effects that we tried hard to ignore this. Bad claymation, “medieval” costumes which looked like tee-shirts were underneath, noticeable CG, and backgrounds that in some cases looked like a television display were all present in this show. We kissed again a fair amount, because this show was so cheesy that we''d start laughing if we didn''t do something else.

    We headed for the portal, when Ambrosia suddenly sidetracked us. “Hey,” she said, “we should train harder. I wouldn''t want to be defeated by Belial, like last time, so we should maybe do some sidequests to increase our strength.” Did I hear her say, “Like last time”? sea??h thё Novёl?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    LILITH

    There''s something you should know about. I''m not exactly innocent of things in Hinata. Oh, I''m sure you''ve heard Elias or Aqorm talk about how wicked she was, stealing a kiss from me. Let''s set the record straight.

    I am a horny demon. In every sense of the word. Not only did I convince a girl to leave her boyfriend, which is bad enough, not only was I still actively wanting to sleep with her, but the moment she left, I went after someone else. After Aqorm left, Michael and I were alone at the bar. We had just gotten into an argument. I don''t really remember about what, since it seems so silly now. I told him, “You take that back! How dare you tell me something like that!” This was following what he had just said, which was extremely insulting. Michael was drunk, and while he had managed to sober up just enough to not be slurring, snarled, “ I won''t. I''ll say it as many times as I need to!” Everyone in the bar rolled their eyes. Angels and demons getting into arguments was a cliche, even though they didn''t meet often enough that people would make it one. I glared at him, face red with frustration, “The way you are... it really makes me...” I continued, “It really makes me... so...” Why was I hesitating? I hated him. Right?

    All of a sudden, I realized that the redness in my face wasn''t anger. It was a blush. Then I stopped talking, frozen by this sudden realization. Michael asked, “Yes? What does it make you?” I said nothing, instead I stood up and looked at him straight in the eye, with his back to the bar table. He continued to look puzzled, until I started passionately kissing him, knocking over glass bottles and containers as we continued to kiss. Everyone watching groaned. They were waiting to see what the two of us did, and in the span of about three hours, I had already hit on and kissed two different people. I knocked over a priceless bottle or plum wine, shattering it to bits. A nearby sorcerer said, “Selective Temporal Rewind,” and the plum wine inserted itself back into the bottle which reformed itself. Unfortunately, it was policy, it touches the floor, any food or drink must be poured out. I was threatening to break that one again, plus about five or ten others. “Stop making out in this bar! You''re wrecking the place!” the barkeep said.

    Of course, we ignored her, stopping only long enough that the barkeep manage to put away all her bottles, as it was beyond even the best sorcerer to have enough mystic power to keep fixing things. At about that point though the bar table smashed under the weight of both of us, and Lajila the barkeeper had enough. “All those who defile this sacred bar shall be... cast out!” Everyone in the bar acted at bouncers, lifting the two of us while chanting “wasshoi.” The key was not to resist. Michael, on the other hand, squirmed so much that he managed to knock himself unconscious. This is probably what Bahamut saw from the sky as I carried him. What nobody saw, however, was me ducking into an old abandoned house to finish what we started.