Back in their home after the last lesson of school, Inkaro and Lizu were once again situated on their sofa, cladded in their respective homewear, and playing video games, but with two other girls who shared in Lizu's aesthetic of wearing onesies for bedwear. Those girls: Enetha and Anazenpha. Bouncing on the far left of the sofa positioned next to Inkaro and bursting with enough energy for it to be slightly contagious to the observing beequeen girl, Anazenpha happily flailed her controller about, even as her hulking character was knocked off the stage and her last life was lost.

  [Anazenpha is currently wearing a pale yellow onesie covered in cartoony banana doodles bled into it]

  Hearing the demon snake girl's continued button pressing despite her in-game character being absent from the screen, Lizu raised her gaze from the game, finding it both endearing and question-provoking. On the opposite side of the sofa and with Lizu's tail protectively coiled vaguely around her, the little princess caught Lizu not paying attention to the game. Seizing the opportunity, Enetha's character bolted it across and desperately dived-bombed for Lizu's character, only to be intercepted by Inkaro's character, which grappled her character and dropped the both of them off the stage; the victory screen soon played after: Lizu was first place, Enetha and Inkaro were second place, and Anazenpha was third place. Enetha slumped her head.

  As she continued lying on her side, contentedly resting her head on Inkaro's crossed legs, Lizu eyed the cheerful Anazenpha with inquisitive amusement: "So... what compelled you to join this impromptu sleepover of ours?"

  "I asked my auntie and she said I could," Anazenpha cheerfully said, sleeve-covered hands raised high over her head with a controller magnetically attached to her right sleeve.

  "That... isn't quite what I meant," Lizu murmured in stupefied amusement as she deemed getting a logical answer out of the girl was something out of her league of achievement. Inkaro had a better chance of such a thing, so she'd wait for him to ask the question again on her behalf. If he asked, that is.

  While she wasn't thrilled with the outcome of the round's conclusion, Enetha was undoubtedly feeling the effects of enlightenment at finally surpassing her prior self and claiming the milestone of not being the first one to lose. Even if the time discrepancy between Anazenpha and herself losing their last life was mere seconds, Enetha didn't care; an improvement was an improvement in her books.

  [Enetha is currently wearing a light cyan kitsune-themed onesie with eleven small, bushy kitsune tails. And, underneath the onesie, is the commandeered pink shirt of Inkaro's and her tail-having undies]

  "Are you having fun, Enetha? My little stunt didn't ruin your mood, did it?" Inkaro inquired as he felt his sacrifice grapple move was a little rude. The little princess almost missed what Inkaro said to her, too busy basking in her little victory, but did eventually register the guy's question. Enetha shook her head, denying the implication, despite it being the tiniest bit truthful.

  "No, I'm having fun, I suppose, but... I do want to plan something else," Enetha murmured, meekly tightening the cloth-like appendages of hers, under her onesie, around her chest, thighs, and arms. As she waited, Enetha tightened the grip she had on herself as her nerves spiked at being so unreasonably demanding, in her mind at least.

  "Then how about we play something more cooperative when Nuenala gets back?" Inkaro stated reassuringly, with the little princess timidly nodding her head at the suggestion, while easing up on the tightness of her appendages by just a smiggen.

  "Speaking of Nuli, she sure is taking her time. How long does it take to make some moulds?" Lizu muttered lazily, mentioning how Nuenala was probably being held up by helping her cousin at his smithy, or the two got into another figureine crafting competition. Both options were equally probable. "Yeah... that guy's figurines certainly praiseworthy, it's almost scary how anatomically and proportionally correct those things are."

  Speaking of the devil-looking girl, Nuenala came barreling through the front door with her hands occupied by a hand-sized box, startling Anazenpha in an extreme rollercoaster sort of way. While all that was going on, Yuuvia was barely stirred from her sleep by the bombastic entrance as she remained out cold on the one-seater sofa.

  [Nuenala is currently wearing baggy pyjamas made of blue wool with yellow stars. And, a blue, form-fitting croptop with a yellow star on the back]

  Snoring quietly, Yuuvia remained prim and socially presentable, despite being exhausted to the point of succumbing to slumber. The only response her unconscious self made to the blacksmith's presence was a half-hearted grumble of indignation at Nuenala's crass display as she sleepily slumped more firmly into the sofa's cushions like a log.

  [Yuuvia is currently wearing her thigh band on her head like a headband. An elegant, silver, silk nightgown covered in faintly glowing crescent moon embroidery. A dark blonde camisole. Silver, frilly bloomer shorts. And, dark blonde leggings]

  "Behold, the completed game controllers!" Nuenala declared as she set the box on the floor beside the coffee table.

  "Hmm...." Enetha purred inquisitively and disappointedly, towards herself, at the mould as she picked up the one with a chessboard pattern with gold and silver squares. Noticing her reaction, Inkaro instinctively patted her on the head, making the little princess close her eyes as she snapped back from her Inspection Mode.

  "You're skilled at making tapestries, but the games will function more smoothly if we use curios. It's not like I actively did it to demean you," Inkaro mentioned calmly, with Lizu actively teasing him by commenting on his comforting skill levelling up.

  "I see," Enetha said plainly, not fully comprehending why the minor discrepancy between tapestries and curios had any weight or impact on the game. Even if she wanted to, Enetha couldn't muster any mental strength to re-enter any of her Modes, let alone Princess Mode, so she chose to remain silent as Inkaro helped her change the casing of her controller.

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  "Father, Morilore has finished the new game you requested, based on Enetha's desires," Morilore voiced as she fluttered down from the second floor, carrying a grimoire disc in her hands: a grey, crystaline hexagon with a diameter of five centimetres and a thickness of two millimetres.

  Looking at the grimoire disc, Enetha read the title on the object. Well, she tried to, as it was in a language she didn't know, before mindlessly letting a question slip, "How long did it take you to make it?"

  "In real time or from my perspective?" Morilore said bluntly, while diving down to the pale pink, sleek, pentagon-shaped gaming console on the coffee table.

  Barely jumping at the bluntness that momentarily stunned her, Enetha managed to get out a confused response, "Yes?"

  "Five point five minutes of real time, and a year in sped-up time by having my sibling Shadeful Tribute doing what mother would refer to as: timey wimey nonsense," Morilore explained as she removed the grimoire disc(with the engraving "Soul Battle" in the language unknown to all but Morilore and Lizu) from the gaming console and inserted the "Voxiahyle" grimoire disc.

  As the mana puppet reached to press the read-disc button on the console, Morilore paused before darting her head up and glaring over her shoulder. With her dress turning a blazing red, Morilore's actions did not go unnoticed by Inkaro as he shot a hand in the direction her eyes were pointing, conjuring a multitude of SSS: AW rings that were trained on the spot.

  The spot in question appeared to be barren of anyone, even a straggling mini beegirl, much to the other girls' confusion as G.Galore swooped over to the guilty location.

  "What you looking at?" Anazenpha asked excitedly, wondering if this was some sort of game Inkaro wanted to play before trying the next video game. Lizu also asked a similar question, along the lines of Anazenpha's one, but more serious-sounding. Enetha, too busy trying and failing to wake Yuuvia up so she can be confused alongside everyone else, didn't pay too much attention to the location.

  "Not sure... but if Morilore and G.Galore think it's a threat, then I can't ignore it."

  [There's no need for worry, I'm just here to check out the big boom of game making I sensed. Pretend I'm not here... unless you don't mind me joining. Just know, I've never lost in any game]

  Focusing their eyes, the group could barely make out the being's shape at first, but managed to once she fully manifested her mana body in the room.

  [Game Stigmai]

  [In her current form, she is made almost entirely out of golden spirally energy, excluding some sections, with the appearance of very short teenaged female human without any facial features; she has super long curly hair with the nebula-coloured-sky stripes that's styled into two braided ponytails on the left side of her head, the nebula-coloured ends of her ponytails are bundled together into the shape of two hand that are slightly larger than her normal hands. Kitsune ear-shaped, curved horns with engravings that give them the illusion of being made of segmented pieces on the sides of her head. And, ten transparent, golden mana(wavey energy) kitsune tails floating behind her]

  [Oh yeah, introductions. Names... wait, I'm not meant to give that out unless I'm giving out... anyway, you can call me Game Stigmai]

  "Oh, so you're not a monster?" Inkaro asked, to which Game Stigmai shook her head with her ponytails swaying about along with her motion. "Alright then."

  With that, Inkaro and Lizu returned to putting their custom frames onto their controllers, much to Enetha and Anazenpha's stilted and very silent shock. As the two girls stared at the duo like they'd done something illegal, Nuenala placed her hands on the two confused girls' shoulders, pressing her hands into them with a comforting pressure: "Trust me, them reacting like this is the most normal reaction those two could possibly have in this situation."

  "True~" Enulatina said teasingly while watching Game Stigmai, squeezing G.Galore with her hair hands, gleefully taking in the sentient grimoire's shape and dimensions. Her affectionate touch would suggest the stigmai had some sort of soft spot for artificial life. But her accompanying giggling, which bordered on mania, suggested an interest on the more obsessive side.

  [So, little grimoire, how would you like an 'upgrade' to make your games more 'immersive'? How does that sound?]

  Still over by but being able to hear what G.Galore hears, Morilore's snapped from defensive anger to reluctant intrigue at the prospect of making better games for Inkaro to praise her for, as her dress turned to a beige to silver gradient. 'Gamai' playfully giggled as she released the sentient grimoire and allowed her to hover on her own.

  [Glad to see you're interested~]

  With that, the stigmai leaned in and whispered her TRUE name to the sentient grimoire before instantly dispersing her energy body into nothing, giggling as a thin wave of golden energy washed over G.Galore and Morilore.

  "Huh... I suppose non-organic people can get stigmas," Inkaro remarked, speaking in a way that doesn't imply surprise, as he helped Anazenpha pop her muffin-themed casing onto her controller, while Morilore attached the disco ball-themed casing onto Yuuvia's controller.

  Puffing up her cheeks from trying not to snicker, Lizu poked Inkaro in the face with a finger as she said, "You'd know that if you read some history books, like The Golem on Lakeshore Shire."

  As Lizu snapped the cloud-themed casing onto her own controller, Enetha widened her eyes slightly. Instinctively poking one of her cloth-like appendages from the hood of her onesie, reaching it out over Lizu and bounding for Inkaro's sleeve. And with a few timed tugs to get the guy's attention, Inkaro moved his attention from Lizu and checked on Enetha, only to see she was pointing at the console, covered in a faint veil of golden energy: "Should it be glowing like that?"

  With its read-disc button pressed down by some unseen force, Inkaro had no chance to answer Enetha's question before the glowing console audibly rattled. The rattling drew in the conscious quintet while the sleeping Yuuvia stirred only enough to tell everyone to be quiet as she rolled onto her other side. But the moment Inkaro moved in a way to indicate his intention to investigate, the console made a faint click. By the time Inkaro set his G.Galore-themed controller on the sofa, the console jumped a single time on the coffee table and shot out multiple faint golden beams that harmlessly stuck all six in the chest.

  And in a flash of gold, they were all gone, leaving Morilore holding G.Galore on her head in synthesised shock as the console made a start-up noise.

  The queen beegirl divebombed onto the sofa, stunned from the sudden flash as the mini beegirls rushed in from all directions to check on her, whilst Morilore tried to calculate how long the group would be gone for.