The entire harem looked intensely at the whirl of glass in front of them. An enigmatic construction of translucent pipes and artfully forged metal segment, all stuck together by reinforcing magic that couldn’t be changed by hand, only influenced through a menu that John had no intention of touching at the moment.

It was the centrepiece of the Perfumery. The automatic piece that did exactly what the Gamer wanted with the ingredients provided. Raw ingredients had been put into containers all throughout the oriental internal design of the oddly Chinese themed building. Herbs went into that place, oil was poured into flasks along that wall, water with different mineral components and degrees of purity had been assorted. All of these things had to be done by hand, just so that this central combination mechanism could magically withdraw it.

Plants were ground into a pulp within a spherical blender, mixed with water that came out of nowhere, boiled away, then the dust mixed with just enough oil that the resulting mixture fluidly made its way down a slanted, curved pipe. All over the contraption such events took place, kilos and litres of ingredients losing their original shapes on their path to a miniscule flask at the bottom, the size of a mouth spray bottle. Drip by drip, it filled up with an amber liquid.

When the process had come to an end and the last drop dripped from the funnel, the podium the little flask stood on was lowered. A head fit for spraying sealed the opening, appearing on top out of thin air. A little pop-up informed John that it was safe to take it out of the contraption, which he did.

John took it with a lot of respect. Dropping it would have been potential millions in cost. The bulk of the stuff inside there was extracted from monsters that appeared in Natural Barriers around volcanoes. Much of it had been synthesized with the new Production Buildings, but not all of it. Also, John just wanted to smell so good everyone wanted to cuddle him again. That was just a generally fantastic attribute to have.

Having washed as clean of the perfume he had worn as a quality knock-off of this one, John smelled as neutral as he could currently. Of course, all of these smells were still laid into him and it would take more than one shower could do to rinse these things off completely, but he wouldn’t wait for several days to try this.

Under anticipating gazes, he applied just a little bit of it to his wrist to test the smell. He didn’t have to bring his nose close to become enveloped by the symphony of smell. Most intense was the smell of fire, all of the pleasant applications of it, to be more precise. The smell of long-smoked meat, well cooked steak, burning candles, incense and sandalwood. Intense, a hint of sweetness, but overall a manly, husky smell. Underneath were a few gentle notes. The aromatic note of a field after autumn rain. The mysterious scent of oriental spices. The slightly salty musk of a sea breeze.

To John, this whole array was pleasant. Very pleasant indeed, it was a smell he didn’t mind wallowing in. Much like he, as a man, was more susceptible to red lips, curvy bodies, and the sweet smells of womanhood, the girls with him reacted more intensely though. The smell unfolded in the air around him as he shortly stripped out of his shirt and sprayed it onto a few key areas.

“Yessssssssss.” Eliza, with her more than acute senses, was affected by this the most. “That’s the shit. Fucking fuck, you smell like you got back rescuing kids from a forest on fucking fire, while also building a house with your bare hands and jog-fucking me through the entire thing!”

“I guess that’s one way to say I smell manly.” John grinned, standing there still shirtless. There was a wave of reactions, bit lips, rubbing legs, flushing faces, from all of the girls. They were all subconsciously recalling all the sex they had enveloped by that scent – and imagining all the sex they would be having in the future. That the Gamer had gotten more muscular, taller and overall better looking between the months he had last put this scent on poured litres of gasoline on a nostalgic fire of lust.

Nobody was left unaffected by this. Although the cologne itself had no inherently aphrodisiac properties, it would have been a complete and utter lie to say it didn’t make him more desirable. John Newman looked like the reincarnation of Adonis, his voice was deep and pleasant, he was tall, he was clean but not boringly unblemished and now he also smelled like the most attractive man in the world. Through spending of resources, time and Stats, the Gamer had become a masculine force dominating sight, smell and hearing with his mere presence. It was ingrained into all of his harem that he had his ways to make taste and touch subservient to his advances as well.

Something that spurred his harem into action. It was hard to say who moved first, likely Metra, maybe Rave or Salamander, but John soon found himself surrounded by their bodies. They competed to reach his lips, but with eleven girls in the room, that was a rough field to get any success in. Ever the benevolent master of his harem, John’s tongue wrestled with all of them in quick turns. Those not blessed with his attention at any given moment kissed his body instead. Warm hands travelled over his defined muscles, reaffirming John’s conviction that he had made more good than bad decisions in his life so far.

“Alright!” Lydia eventually snapped herself out of the trance. “We require a relocation! Somewhere private, where I can indulge in this sudden desire to just…” the queen cleared her throat, “…bask in your scent until your semen fills my asshole to the brim, to put it mildly.”

If that was putting it mildly, John really wanted to see what the auburn-haired royal had in mind. However, only Gnome seemed to urgently want to move as well. The rest of his girls were perfectly happy where they were. It was remarkable, really, how perverted his harem was. Public sex being fine was the majority position, not by a small margin.

Metra’s hand slid into his pants and grasped his erect member. “I am willing to serve my king right here,” she purred, her lips aggressively assaulting his neck. The first drops of precum were wrung from him. A vibration echoed in the pocket of his pants.

Through the salty taste of Undine’s kiss, John’s thoughts on the matter were temporarily sealed. Even if he found the time to speak between all the tongues that he had to wrestle with, his mind itself was a bit short on blood to formulate ideas with. The steady attention to the rest of his body made sure of that. The vibrations persisted.

John’s own hands explored the surrounding curves. He wasn’t even aiming at anyone in particular, just groped, caressed and teased what his hands found. Each time, he figured out who he was touching before moving onto the next of his lovers. One hand found a naked, extremely squishy breast. Salamander moaned when he pinched her nipple. The other glided over the fabric of a leotard. Sylph giggled excitedly when he touched her pussy, the fabric between her thighs damp.

The vibrations became so intense that John could hear them. It snapped everyone out of the moment long enough for John to realize what it was. “Alright, short stop,” he managed to get out, much to everyone’s disappointment (including himself). With Metra’s hand still clenching his cock, he fished his phone out of his pants. “What the…?” his tone drained the erotic mood from the situation.

He was receiving a stream of messages, as was Rave, now that she checked to bother her phone. Aclysia and Beatrice also pulled theirs from their Inventories, subject to the same alerts. Spread through the slowly progressing Fusion-communication app that Scarlett was writing and the old network based on traditional programs, more widespread but infinitely less secure. Both channels were hitting him with a steady stream of security notifications.

The Hudson Barrier was under attack.

“What the fuck?” Rave now asked for him. “What’s going on, who is attacking us?!”

“The Lake Alliance,” John calmly responded as he went to his contact list. Normally he would have gone for the call back option, but in that swamp, that would be ineffective. In the distance, he heard an explosion. Somewhere east of their position. ‘Presumably the dockyard,’ John thought, as that was doubtlessly where they would hit first.

The bundle of lustfully intertwined limbs that was the harem unravelled into a bunch of battle ready individuals. Unsure expression, hard eyes, a sense of confusion and annoyance settled in the Perfumery. “Ya mean they wanna retaliate after all?” Rave asked. Although John had only mentioned it briefly, he had informed his girls about potential ways he saw the war progressing at some times. He wasn’t one to withhold information from them.

“I doubt this is purely because of the way I humiliated Jeremiah, otherwise they would have done it much sooner,” John responded, calmly scanning through the list of alerts to get a view of the situation. Like he had thought, there was a big push going on at the dockyard, but smaller assaults were going on at the Fusion Trade Tower (as the former Thorne HQ had been redubbed) and the local Hudson Barrier government building over in Manhattan. “Although I didn’t think they would retaliate now and certainly not in such force…” The display of his phone changed as the connection was established. “Chemilia?”

“Yes, I’m here,” she responded, her tone hardened. Now was not the time for their usual banter. “What are your orders?”

“I want you to meet with Ted and Corith, gather up a sizable force of at least fifty people and wait at the Harbour for further orders. Take one of the boats from my yacht and get it into position. You have a security card, right?”

“I have it on me, yes. Orders received, I will contact you again when we have organized.” The phone was put down and John was left a moment to explain things to the gathered girls in detail.

“This is a worst-case scenario, but it’s still under control,” he calmed down any initial worries that may arise. “We have protocols for full-fledged invasion. The police force should be instructing the civilians to either leave the barrier or seek shelter in safe areas right now. Magoi is going to put the barrier into lockdown in thirty minutes. What we need now is intel on the enemy. Scarlett, do you have anything for me?”

The question was directed at the phone still at his hand. 18:00:23 – 18:00:24 – 18:00:25, the seconds ticked by without answer. Then, a sound like white noise out of a radio. Distorted words could be heard, sometimes coming properly in tune, only to fade out again.

“…Damage… hull achieved. Is a massive thing. Will… time... destroy.” That was one voice, male, sounding somewhat bored. “TH out.”

“10 minutes until Egg…” a bunch of scrambled noises, the voice was so heavily distorted John couldn’t make out whether it was a man or a woman talking, “…invades central objective site.”

“Progress to hitlist target Voidsmith location good. No update on Fateblocks,” a playful female voice reported. “First resistance … ered and broken.”

“Don’t forget,” Jeremiah’s growl could be heard clearly, confirming, without a doubt, that this was the Lake Alliance. “If the Gamer shows his face and there’s a chance to kill him we…” the connection broke suddenly. A couple of fumbled words came through, “Anchor… Retreat… spare… sluts…” One last, coherent sentence, “We’ll do as much damage as we can, can’t sign a peace as the balance is,” then the white noise vanished as well.

“Got to hand it to their encryption,” Scarlett’s voice echoed out. “I can’t push any deeper without revealing my presence in the network, so you’ll have to do with that.”

“It’s a start,” John mumbled combining the pieces he got in a number of different ways. After a few seconds of thought, he sighed. “Seems like this is my fault. They likely interpreted my offer for a white peace as me wanting peace at any cost.”

“That’s a nice fucking theory right there,” Eliza exclaimed, “but shouldn’t we HURRY THE SHIT UP AND ANSWER THE ATTACK?!”

“No,” John responded firmly. “We need to make sure we make the correct move. We can’t just run headless into the situation and risk missing the enemy. Their primary goal is damaging Fusion assets, but they did mention that killing me would be something they have a plan for.” Eliza growled like an angry wolf at hearing that. “Alright, we need to secure our most important assets first… Metra, you go and protect the IBMA. You’re our strongest single fighter and most mobile so you would be best for that mission.”

“As you command, my king,” the berserker babe reached into a tear in space next to her and removed her halberd from her inventory. Before she could storm off, John quickly grabbed her by the wrist.

“I want you to be very aware of something,” he told her in a genuinely worried tone. “If you face Jeremiah – no matter how sure you are you can take him – play it defensively. Don’t take any risks. I don’t want him to eat you, not even the slightest bit, we don’t know what could happen if he does. Understood?”

Metra grinned and patted his shoulder. “I can take care of it, John, don’t ya fucking worry about anything!” He let go of her wrist. Although the tone of her answer was as casual as always, the look in her green eyes was hard and focused. The First of Wrath was in her element in situations of warfare.

“Alright, Jane, I want you to go and protect Magoi,” he told his girlfriend, while opening the Guild Hall menu to fiddle with the Weather Tower controls. “He should be in his tower. I think Fateblocks is code for him and Magnus. Even if it isn’t, the enemy would be gunning for the only person that can reliably block their escape route. Best take him or them to the Guild Heart room, that’s the safest place we have around here. Eliza, you should also go with them.”

“Alrighty,” Rave nodded and looked at the blood mage, who still looked immensely pissed, but went along with the Gamer’s orders without further comments. Both soon ran out of the door that Metra had left open.

Lydia crossed her arms and closed her eyes. “You know what I have to do in this situation, yes?”

“Yes,” John kept it short. As little as it pleased either of them, the queen of Germany couldn’t get involved in this fight, unless she was directly attacked. There was the option for her to ignore what was proper or throw herself into the battlefield with the expressed purpose of getting hit by a stray shot, but the disciplined royal wasn’t one for such trickery. “Stay in the Embassy or the Palace.”

“I will observe things from the Statue of Liberty,” Lydia stated, pressing her lips together until the colour drained from their red perfection. Being limited by honour from helping her beloved in a situation like this couldn’t have been pleasant for her, so John placed a quick kiss on her lips.

“We have been through worse,” he quietly assured her. “I’ll come to you before the day is over, you have my word.”

“And I have all trust you will keep it,” Lydia relaxed a little bit, then walked away. Undoubtedly, she would be surrounded by her bodyguards by the time she was out the door.

This left John with his familiars. The two maids and the five elementals were looking at him as he laid out the remaining plans. ‘Voidsmith… that must be Marathyu,’ he thought. ‘I need to go there to secure the equipment upgrades, but I also can’t let the other three locations go without protection. The dockyard is the most affected from what I have gathered so far, but…’ “Scarlett?”

“Yes?”

“I hate to ask this but… do you think it’s a high priority securing the Trade Tower right now?” The Technomancer was in there and, by virtue of him being him, John wanted to make sure she was safe a lot more than he cared about the billions of dollars in material and finished labour that was currently getting shredded elsewhere. What his emotions dictated, however, was not strictly what he should be doing.

“Metra will distract them long enough on her way to the IBMA and I am basically impossible to find in here, so go do the pragmatic thing, you fucking idiot,” Scarlett scolded him, only to let out something between an exasperated sigh and a single giggle. “I am illogically happy to hear your worry though.”

“…Okay…” John mumbled, “I will come and relieve your position as soon as I can.”

“Take your time, in this personally designed skyscraper, I am a god,” Scarlett snickered, before John put his phone away and turned to his familiars. The Mandala Sphere hovered right beside his head.