"Come, Blondie Bestie~" Nyx sing-songed as she looped her arm around Alexandra's and began dragging her toward the hall.

"H-Hm? Where are you taking me?" Alexandra gasped with her heels digging against the floor as if that would stop the space Valkyrie's relentless pull.

"This bunker has four bedrooms and a basement with two rooms," Nyx began her explanation casually, ignoring her friend's panic. "One basement room is occupied by Riven, our resident clanker maniac. She's still in the hospital with her sister right now; you'll meet her later. The other basement room is where we shoot most of our variety streams. That leaves us with four bedrooms. One is the gremlin's den of sin—namely her gamer girl cave."

"Den of sin?!" Luna scoffed from the side, earning a smirk from Nyx.

"The other is the harem bedroom where the magic~ happens if you catch my drift…" Nyx continued, her tone sly. Alexandra nearly tripped over her own feet at that.

The poor blond had somehow forgotten how lively and straightforward her best friend could be.

"That leaves us with two spare rooms. Aria, Kai, I, and, well, Bastet, though she has almost nothing, just use them for storage, since we sleep in the giant harem bed together. So I'm taking you to one of those. We'll catch up, clean it, reorganize it, and then boom: it's yours."

Alexandra's eyes widened immediately. She twisted around like a fish on a hook, tugging desperately to escape Nyx's grasp. "I-I can't! I won't take one of your rooms! I didn't even plan to stay, I just came to thank you for the help, for pushing me to finally take revenge and change my life!" Her voice shuddered as she yanked at Nyx's grip, looking frantic.

"Absolutely not."

The chorus came from Aria, Nyx, Luna, and Bastet in perfect unison.

"H-Huh?" Alexandra gasped, blinking rapidly, looking utterly lost and adorable in her panic.

Aria sported a calm, firm warmth in her expression. "You're not going to the streets after what you've done for us. We're going to protect you."

"And I want to see your recovery with my own two eyes, I'm eager to see it," Luna added with a sage nod, arms folded as if she had declared the laws of the universe. "So we'll keep you here until you're smiling from ear to ear."

Bastet giggled at that. "Should I point out how odd it sounds to talk about restraining the freedom of a traumatized woman? And you dare call me a weirdo?"

Luna ignored the tanned feline completely.

Nyx squeezed Alexandra tighter and leaned in. "And I want to catch up with my bestie! Although…" She tilted her head and sighed dramatically. "I won't call you my best friend anymore."

Hearing that, Alexandra froze. Her blue eyes went wide and watery as she looked up at Nyx like a puppy left out in the rain. "Wh-What? Why…?"

Nyx grinned widely. "Because now I have three best friends!"

"Don't call me that," Luna protested immediately.

Nyx nodded solemnly as though she agreed one hundred percent. "Of course not. Don't get carried away, gremlin. By my three best friends, I meant Alexandra, Aria, and Bastet."

"…"

Luna's scowl deepened while Aria giggled, and Bastet studied Luna's expression slyly while her tail swayed excitedly behind her perky butt, making the Storm Valkyrie even more annoyed.

Meanwhile, Alexandra stood in Nyx's grip with red cheeks, trembling lips, utterly out of her element. She didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or collapse from the warmth and chaos that seemed determined to swallow her whole, refusing to let her escape into the cold night.

For the first time in a long time, she wasn't just surviving; she was being pulled into something that felt a whole lot like the home she hazily remembered from back before she turned ten years old and met Maximilian.

Kaiden smiled. "Have fun, my space babe."

"Oh, I will, my sin babe~" Nyx sang back while tugging Alexandra along with her as the blond's protests dissolved into squeals of exasperation.

Luna grimaced and made a pistol out of her hand, with which she theatrically shot herself right in the head. It was her 'I'm dying of cringe' display.

The moment of chaos and warmth slowly faded as they all eventually gathered in the main room of the bunker. The television came to life, and the news anchor's face greeted them.

The reports were devastating. Simultaneous dungeon breaks erupted across the globe a week ago, and while some of the best-organized nations, like the United States, managed to contain most of the chaos, in no small part to highly trained awakened forces, smaller states, particularly in parts of Africa and Asia, were overrun.

Cities burned. Governments scrambled. Relief efforts hadn't even started yet due to each nation being far too busy cleaning its own streets.

The estimated human toll was staggering. Already weakened by the initial mana apocalypse, the population of Earth had been reduced by hundreds of millions before.

Now, the death toll from these new disasters was estimated at over 500 million. Humanity was teetering below seven billion, and for the first time in decades, the survivors truly felt the scale of what had been lost.

The air in the bunker grew heavy. Luna reached for Kaiden's hand, gripping it tightly with her nails pressing into his palm. Aria did the same, leaning slightly into him. Her eyes were glistening as she shed tears for the fallen.

Both women shared a silent understanding of the sheer magnitude of grief that swallowed the world, all because of this unexpected event.

Bastet, ever the Ra-Blessed Felinid, remained composed. She did not cry. She did not vocalize her sadness. But she stayed silently propped on the sofa's back rest behind Kaiden, showing a mark of respect for the lives lost and the tragedy unfolding, refraining from her usual antics, which would've seen her kneeling between her master's legs and using her long feline tongue for both of their pleasure.

In this manner, silence ruled the room. The tragedy was vast. The end of the world felt closer than it ever had, and yet, in that small home of theirs, there was still hope left to hold onto.

It was a hard, bitter reality.

Then, as expected, the news reporter changed topics. Instead of death tolls, suddenly the logo of ChronosX and Valhalla's Sinners was shown on the screen.

At the same time, Kaiden summoned his status window.

It was time to inspect just how many new viewers they managed to steal from the president's broadcast.

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