“You are Mother’s child.”

“Our seas are clean, our ice untainted.”

“I weep for the things Mother has to do for us.”

“Mother loves her children, all of us, more than any other elemental leader.”

“Mother carries the extremes of all of us. The ebb and flow of our emotions, she possesses on a cosmic scale. The seas turmoil under her wrath. It is not a positive thing, but it is a fact.”

That was about the worst thing John heard as he asked around the water elementals they gathered. While he did feel a certain level of fervour in their tone, it didn’t reach the level of indoctrination. They were thankful children, not ideologically possessed, their view was skewed but they were still able to see the flaws. The way the Mother of Water actually ran her plane was less tyrannical than John had originally assumed.

It was, however, still a lot more puritan than what the other elements aspired to. Whether this was justified or not, John couldn’t decide with the information he had at hand. For the moment, he remained sceptical. Both he and Undine were trying to take a more nuanced look at the situation now, but that was difficult with the experiences they had suffered at the hands of that oceanic medusa.

Also, John’s paranoia told him that he might have been sent a giant batch of loyalists who only came over to spread propaganda, but that was neither here nor there.

When it came to the actual pacification of the islands, it went exceedingly smoothly.

Gnome was faced with some minor troubles, but the general character of earth elementals was risk averse. They were happy enough to just see Gnome demonstrate her superiority once, acknowledge it and then go on their way. While very few were as shy as Gnome was, a very large number of earth elementals were loners of some description. Once the agitators were taken care of, everyone else just looked for a nice spot to sun their craggy hides on, or wandered the miniature mountain ranges.

Expectedly, things were a bit more heated when it came to the Fire Island. Because the average fire elemental was more than a tad passionate in their conduct, everyone with even a flicker of power threw themselves at Salamander. John could see the resulting firestorms for quite a while. It was the middle of the night, after all, and the multi-coloured flames clashing lit up part of the horizon repeatedly. If all of them had actually concentrated on Salamander, they would have been able to take her down. As it was, the fight devolved from one versus many to everyone versus everyone and Salamander came out on top, establishing the pecking order well enough.

Where John, Undine and the rest of the group operated, things went pretty smoothly. Because of the way water elementals reigned over their emotions, either keeping calm or letting them rise to an unrelenting rush, it was pretty easy to just reason with them. All it took was to show that Juniel was obediently trotting along and everyone else just fell in line. That Undine, apparently, was so similar to the Mother of Water in demeanour did help gain some cred immediately.

They found one last elemental at the very tip of the island that had something interesting to say. An elemental that looked almost exactly like a normal man in a trenchcoat, except he had no mouth and raindrops steadily pearled off him. “You have her face and the colour of her dark days. You have her shape. Your scars are red where hers are black, but you both have curved lines.”

“The Mother of Water has been infected by the Lorylim?” John asked, to which that strange fellow shook his head.

“Those beasts never got their roots into Mother. It is the thousands of us that she has cleansed that caused the scars to grow on her. Blessed be Mother, taking all our burdens onto herself.”

The words had a greater effect on Undine than John. He felt that she considered going back to the plane for a brief moment, but the pain she remembered prevented her from even asking John with proper words. Without knowing she wouldn’t be subjected to that again; she would not return to her place of origin.

Although Undine somewhat suffered under her memories, Sylph actively suffered under her companionship up north. This was because Sullyvan was there, one among her kin who’s blabbering even the Gamer’s whimsical air spirit found tremendously annoying. When it came to the rest, they got in line. Figuratively, of course. Factually, the entire island was filled with the chatter of air elementals excited about something new happening, which meant they were talking even more and even quicker than usual. They darted from place to place and any kind of formation they might have taken was entirely coincidental.

Despite all of that excited buzzing, Sylph only got to talk to Sullyvan. The fellow was around the level of Juniel and the others, giving him some influence among his kind. John also got the feeling that everyone else shared Sylph’s feelings on the guy, so they were naturally avoiding her as long as he was around.

‘Saaaaaveeeeeeeee meeeeeeeeee,’ the elongated plea echoed in John’s mind.

‘I can’t, yet,’ John told her, while walking past the Water Shrine. It was a small palace of ice, more of a sculpture than an actual building. Carved spires of medieval design glowed from within in a cold blue light, originating from the singular room on the inside that held the pond of elemental essence. ‘I’m really sorry.’

Instead of a real response, John heard Sylph copy something Sullyvan must have said in a mocking tone, ‘The moon has such a beautiful white colour, it reminds me of the times I went to the mushroom kingdoms. Have you ever heard of the pearls, my lady? I hear they smell like cinnamon, a spice I love for its connection to trebles… Eeeeeek!’ There was a moment where John felt nothing but disgust. ‘He kissed my hand, he kissed my hand, he gave me a gross, sloppy kiss on my hand! Ew, ew, ew, ew, EEEEEEWWWW!’

‘Put a thunderbolt through him,’ John grimly remarked and opened his menu. ‘There has to be a ban list somewhere…’ he thought to himself, tapping through the options. If there was a dimensional gate on his property, he should have the option to shut certain people out. Sexual harassment of one of his girls was more than good enough a reason to lock someone out. After some finagling, he actually found what he was searching for.

‘I already did, but he is sooooo weiiiiiiiird,’ Sylph whined back. ‘He’s some sort of cloud and he just takes my attacks and regenerates. He’s like Undine, except not at all cute, a woman, sexy, well-mannered or other redeeming features. He can regenerate, restore, heal, be unfazed, super annoying, totally the opposite of adorable!’ There was a moment of silence. ‘Now he’s talking about how the sun is made of spiders!’

John punched the name ‘Sullyvan’ into the menu and was presented with over thirty different names with a level and a title attached. The one he thought to be the right one was right at the top, ‘Sullyvan, The Cloud Sophistry, level 132,’ it read. That fit all the descriptions and the mental image John quickly made for himself through their connection. He pushed the button, confirmed his decision and got a relieved sigh from Sylph a moment later.

‘I was saved!’ she babbled, immediately twenty times happier. ‘Can I come over? Do I need to stay here? I really, really wanna see you and I want to wash my hand and I want to forget that ever happened. Ew, it was so ew, why did he kiss-lick my hand without asking? That’s so creepy!’

‘Some men have bad manners,’ John told her. As someone who was thinking about all the perverted things he wanted to do at all times, the Gamer had nothing but contempt for those that just did it without gathering consent for it first. This was doubly true for all the years he had spent unable to do anything sexual and kept things completely to himself to at least have some quiet moments where he wasn’t bullied in school. ‘Whenever you next go home, tell your mother you want a restraining order.’

‘Whatever keeps him. Can I come over now? Can I? Can I pleaaaseeeee?’

‘Not yet, I need you to grab some trustworthy people for some sort of council. Being at the top of the pecking order isn’t enough for a proper social system,’ he told her. He had sent similar messages to the other elementals in the past few minutes. A pecking order was stable only as long as the person at the top of it was present enough to keep everyone else in line. In order to give things a proper level of longevity, there had to be trustworthy delegates and a system to punish transgressions that happened in the absence of authority. Police and court, to put it more easily.

Of course, they weren’t setting up a nation over there, so something small would be enough. A police force that operated on rules of decency, rather than a written-out code, and a court that executed swift bans. It would more resemble the moderation of a chatroom community, but that should be fine. John trusted his girls to operate with wisdom, especially since they could lean on each other for advice.

‘Y-you want us to run the Elemental Islands?’ Gnome asked.

‘I don’t see who would be more fitting for the job,’ John told her and everyone else by extension. The only elemental still at his side at that point was Stirwin. When he departed for the Light Island, he had left Undine behind. The only one he could currently not reach was Siena. Whatever the Mother of Shadow was up to, she had not yet finished up. ‘They are your people. I could do it, but I already have a lot of paperwork.’

‘I-I mean…’ Gnome somehow managed to transfer the sound of nervously swallowing through their bond, ‘…if it supports you, I guess I can do it? Maybe I’ll even learn a thing or two about helping you in your regular business… yeah, that could work! You can do it, Gnome!’

‘You’re thinking publicly again, cuddle rock,’ Salamander chimed in. Embarrassment filled the conversation like glitter out of a cannon. ‘Anyway, sounds fun. If these guys don’t behave, I’ll just kick their fucking asses again.’

‘I’ll set up a tea party! A giant tea party! With cookies and gummy bears!’

‘I will make it work,’ Undine got the last word in. Her state of mind was entirely calm. If the things they had learned over the past hour had still shaken her, John would not have left her on her own devices.

“We’ll see how we deal with your area,” John said and scratched the crocodile hatchling under the chin. Having taken his favourite spot for travel, sitting inside the Gamer’s breast pocket, Stirwin let out repeated squeals. Theoretically, Stirwin could govern over his area as well. Thanks to the elemental essence present there, he could assume a bigger form, but even it would have a lower number of Stats than the average elemental of his level. If it came to establishing a pecking order, there might be an issue.

Is what John thought until the Light Island came into view.

A line of gold and a line of silver orderly stretched all the way from the end of the road to the temple. Sorted by colour and size, light elementals kneeled in whatever shape they took at either side of the path, on the golden grass beyond the reach of the waves. The smallest greeted them at the beginning, their tiny voices whispering, “We greet the Celestial Devourer,” once John carried the tiny golden reptile into the corridor of living light.

He walked further and the elementals he left behind rose to their feet, walking or hovering after them. Orderly separated gold and silver mingled, creating a trail of tiny specks of illumination that danced in the night. Every step the Gamer took, he heard the phrase again, “We greet the Celestial Devourer.”

The voices became less and less squeaky, the elementals speaking them larger and more divergent in shape. Humanoids, crystalline structures, sapient constructs of moonstone, shattered mirrors and animated constellations. They all echoed the phrase, “We greet the Celestial Devourer,” as John passed them. In respectful distance behind them, they joined the procession to the temple.

They were almost at the temple now. The structure of golden stone and silver decorations had gotten even larger. It was set into the ground and reached ten metres deep. The landscape surrounding it was completely empty. John had done fairly little with any of the elemental islands, outside of shape, because he figured that most decorations would be added by the mere presence of the shrines. He had been right for the other islands, but for the Light one both the circular main island and the halo surrounding it were empty.

The sky, however, was alive in a completely alien way. Burning with golden plasma that danced between the incandescent stars, it became brighter the closer John got to the temple. “We greet the Celestial Devourer.” The night was now defeated and, in its place, John walked through the landscape of a thousand tiny suns. “We greet the Celestial Devourer.” The chorus of worship intertwined with parts of the plasma streaks that connected constellations taking up a cosmic image. “We greet the Celestial Devourer.” John followed one continuous streak of golden plasma in the sky. It connected with others into a long line, then that long line snapped into place with another, and another, they curved and eventually clashed peacefully with calming silver, a conflict that seemed meant to be. “We greet the Celestial Devourer.”

The picture in the sky was so vast that John didn’t see it at first. It was the torso of a man. More accurately, it was the outline of a torso of a man. A bald man with defined muscles made from the void between the stars and a shape forged by starlight. He seemed simultaneously godly and non-descript, as if it was merely the base for a more detailed character. The Father of Light reached down the horizon and seemed to frame the temple with his fingers. Distant lips moved. The presence of the elemental ruler was too faint to transfer sounds.

“Holy shit,” Rave whispered. Although those words somewhat ruined the sanctity of the moment, it was the adequate reaction to what they had suddenly walked into. “I keep forgetting that tiny thing is such a big deal.”

“You know, I don’t, but this is still beyond what I expected,” John whispered back, as he led the way down the stairs that brought them down into the basin of the temple. He walked down along the wall, arrived at a middle platform, turned to his right and walked down a second flight of stairs. Arrangements like this were placed around the entirety of the inner rim of the temple. Wherever there was a gap between the end of two stairs, there was a door that led into an underground labyrinth of mirrors.

John was not interested in that today. Instead he turned towards the last two elementals that were kneeling in wait of Stirwin’s arrival. Both reminded John distantly of hieroglyphs of ancient Egyptian gods, but neither actually was one. Standing, they would have been about three metres tall. They only wore sandals, decorated loincloths and several layers of jewellery around their animal heads. Both wielded spears with curved blades at the tip.

The left one represented the golden side of the road, but was actually more of a bronze colour himself. His head was that of an eagle and his fingers were claws with glowing talons. “I, Ubun, greet the Celestial Devourer,” he spoke in a tone of great wisdom and patience.

The right one was a dark silver, almost closer to lead, and had the head of a scorpion. The mandibles worked with slow but tireless motions and light oozed out as semi-liquid mist from behind pieces of chitin that covered his muscular form. “I, Korus, greet the Celestial Devourer!” He barely managed to keep himself from roaring, his body trembling with excitement.

Feeling, at this point, pretty unfitting to carry the star of the show so nonchalantly, John picked the thirty-centimetre-long crocodile hatchling out of his pocket and placed him on the floor. With great veneration, the two level 200 elementals stared as the tiny thing waddled past them and dropped into the shallow pool filled with the elemental essence.

A body of magic, teeth and scales burst out of the pool. Bigger even than the two half-animal warriors, the Celestial Devourer stood on his hindlegs and roared at the sky. A continuous wave of plasma torrented out of the copper mouth. Hooks of silver inside and sharpened golden scales around the maw made up the two layers of teeth Stirwin possessed. The attack he unleashed harmlessly dispersed between his gathered kind, hovering in the air around him.

After several moments, the gargantuan creature, more dragon than crocodile, fell back down on his long limbs. Even inside this shining landscape, the juvenile shape of Stirwin glowed. The webbed, clawed hands of his front legs grabbed the rim of the temple. The massive tail moved absent-mindedly with such force that the ridge of its flat shape could have sliced someone apart. Silver eyes, filled with wisdom and dominance where adorableness and innocence normally lay, focused the two large elementals in turn.

“I am lord of this island,” Stirwin declared, his voice reverberating in John’s very soul. “It is my fief, entrusted to me by my summoner. You will respect him and his realm like you respect me, do you understand?”

““Yes, Celestial Devourer!”” every last light elemental exclaimed and bowed their head.

“Do not disappoint. Do your duty. Deserve your pride.” Stirwin took two steps forwards and then laid down between the two still kneeling light elemental warriors. “You may ask your questions. My mind may not be fully formed in this miniature shape, but I can give you some advice.”