I wasn’t sure how I ended up in a situation where my face was planted against Delphi’s ass, but it was.

It was really soft.

Though, her thighs still made a better pillow. Same with her chest. Or any part of her, really. I didn’t understand it until my face was planted against it, but butts made horrible pillows when they were as big as hers. They required too much neck bending to be comfortable. Trying to sleep on an ass would probably result in neck cramping lately whereas pretty much every other part of the body was safe to use.

Not that it mattered too much. I only liked the backs of my girlfriends to look at.

More importantly, when I got up… I noticed I was wearing a different shirt than my usual one. It was just a plain shirt for the most part except for the fact that it had the letters “BHHE” printed on it.

The heck did that mean? Where did the shirt even come from?

Then, while questioning that, I realized there was something even more important to question.

What happened after I passed out in the forest?

The last thing I remembered was—

“Ahh, wait!” Vala shouted, flying up into the air in front of me to press her hand over my mouth. “Next volume! Save it for then!”

Vala was still being as Vala as ever which was a good sign. If she could still act like her usual self, then it meant that whatever happened in the forest must have been alright.

Plus I could tell just from looking in her eyes.

She was happy.

Relaxed, even.

Seeing her eyes now… made it obvious that she never really looked that happy before. Sure, she still felt joy and was having fun with everybody, and there were moments where she was overflowing with happiness, but she never really looked peaceful when using the current look in her eyes as the new bar for that.

I almost felt like I was looking at somebody completely different.

“You are Vala, right?” I asked.

Vala smiled and kissed me on the tip of my nose. “Your one and only. Want proof?”

“Sure.”

“I’m gonna go play some vidya now and discover what it’s like myself to try using Delphi’s butt as a pillow.”

“Yep, you’re still the same degenerate, lazy, vidya-loving dragon that I love.”

Her cheeks blushed just a little more when I said that. I wondered what sort of thoughts were going on inside of her head whenever I made her blush like that. “Mw-mwahaha. Yes. Okay. You—you go do stuff now. I mean, go finish up the plot with Valkyria and the old ladies. Everybody’s waiting on a resolution to that and we’ve gotten mega sidetracked. All that forest stuff… can wait for next volume. Well, unless she really speedruns things and makes it back here even faster than she said she would—wait! I’m saying too much! Ahh! Okay! Delphi butt pillow time!”

With that, Vala pulled Delphi away from me and dragged her off toward her hammock.

“Bye bye, Master!” Delphi shouted at me. “I’ll share my souper soup with you when Master makes it!”

Souper soup?

The heck was that?

Wait.

Why was I questioning something?

I was supposed to take everything at face value and never question anything. That was the kind of world we were in.

Yet…

I really wanted to know what “souper soup” was.

Alright. Finally, I made it over to our house with my new shirt and… really, really sore hips. I… went way too hard in the forest. My hips and back were killing me.

Oh, right.

There was also the fact that my soul was sore.

Yes.

My soul.

Was sore.

I had no idea it was even possible to have a sore soul, but it was. It was a kind of soreness that was impossible to even begin trying to explain.

It wasn’t fun. I can say that much, at least.

But that aside, I eventually made it inside the house and saw Valkyria sitting at the dining room table with the others. Well, with the old ladies. Everybody else was outside doing their own things. Even Lake must have gone back to her place since she wasn’t clinging to Valkyria anymore.

Or well… there was one other person in there. It was just that she blended in so well with the ladylike way they were all sitting that I thought she must have been one of the old ladies.

“You’re thinking something weird, aren’t you, nya?” Clawdia asked, narrowing her eyes at me.

“I’m just thinking you look dignified,” I answered, causing her to blush a little.

“O-oh? Of course you are! That is nyot the least bit surprising.” Her ears twitched and her tail happily swished around behind her.

Now that Clawdia was happily purring away to herself, I sat down near Valkyria and looked the group over. “How’s everything been going?”

“It has been going well!” Valkyria answered. “There is so much we have gotten caught up on already, but it still feels like there is more we have to cover. So much more to be said that I fear we may not ever get around to it all!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Eliza, her former commander, said. “I’ve got enough life left in me to tell you everything you could hope to hear.”

Given that they just lost one of their friends recently and were all… well, in old and not exactly great looking shape, I could understand why Valkyria was worried. She was finally reunited with her friends while in a body that would likely far, far outlive theirs. After all, she was the same as Lake and Lake had been alive for at least a thousand years.

Valkyria wanted to spend more time with her crew but only reunited with them late into their lives.

It probably would have been safe to expect their deaths within just a couple of years.

But thanks to me and Vala deciding to tell the universe “fuck your rules,” that meant whatever we wanted to make happen could happen.

“Just move here,” I said to the old women. “You can live forever here if you want. You can even bring your families, friends, pets—whoever you want. And Vala or Window could probably use some magic to make your bodies younger if you want, too. Or use magic to make you look completely different. Whatever you want. No reason to waste away on Earth until you eventually die.”

Valkyria and her former crew all looked at me as if they couldn’t believe what I just said.

Clawdia was actually the only one who didn’t look shocked. “What? He has a point. And you ladies make for fine company, so I would rather you stay alive in our world than rot away where you came from. It should be an easy decision to make. Obligatory nya.”

“Oh, and your friend can come back, too, if she wants,” I added on. “And any other loved ones who might have died.”

Clawdia joined in on looking shocked at that point.

“Immortality. Body transformations. Planet-wide necromancy. Fuck it. Whatever will make everybody the happiest. Let’s go for it.”

“Boy,” Eliza said, “I always knew that there are some things in this universe that can’t be explained, ever since Valkyria saved me, but… how am I supposed to believe something as insane as what you’re offering?”

“Whether you believe in it or not doesn’t matter. All you have to do is want it. If you want it, we’ll do it. Though, with the necromancy bit, anybody who you want to bring back to life is going to have to want to come back. Apparently, the realm of souls is actually a pretty nice place and the people there are fine staying there for the most part. I’ve heard they even have bowling nights. Huh. We should get a bowling alley. Wait, if that happens… there’s probably going to be Bowling-chan. Or Bowling Pin-chan. Or Bowling Ball-chan. Maybe all three? Or just the last two. Anyways, back to the necromancy. Anything you want, we can make possible as long as your intentions are good.”

Valkyria gently grabbed onto my arm and asked, “But how? I thought…”

“Some things happened. Extremely important things. Vala said that I can’t bring them up until ‘next volume,’ though, so that means I’m not allowed to say what yet. All you have to know is that all rules have officially been thrown out the window. Literally anything is possible now. Supposedly. All of reality might collapse due to the oldest laws across the universes being broken, but we’ll be fine. Probably. For example.”

I looked at Marmar and snapped my fingers.

Marmar tilted her head for a second before figuring out what just happened. To confirm it, she opened up her mouth and grabbed onto her teeth to try and pull them out… only to confirm that they were, in fact, real teeth and not simply dentures. “Ah’ve got real teeths again!” she cheered.

“Dang, that accent is adorable,” I said. She might have still looked like a small, old lady, but she had a cute accent.

“Heheh, sorry, but ah’ve got me a good man already. And since ah know he’d like to take ya up on that there offer of yours, ah won’t be needin’ a replacement man anytime soon!”

She must have moved out to the country after the war considering her accent didn’t sound anywhere near as heavy during Valkyria’s memories. “Dang. I’m used to everybody around here just automatically becoming my girlfriend, Lake excluded.”

“Don’t worry, ah’ve got some granddaughters ya can have!”

I shook my head and smiled. “I’m just joking. I don’t need my rate of acquiring girlfriends to accelerate even more.”

The third of the former crew then spoke up. I didn’t know her name yet and she hadn’t even said anything since arriving, at least not around me, but she spoke up now to ask, “My—my husband. He… left us a couple years ago. Would… it be possible for him to come back?”

“Sure. Vala is all about everybody having a happy ending, so we’re going to make sure that every single last person has a chance to have one. Well, unless they’re a bad person. We’re only giving happy endings to good people, and I’m pretty sure you all qualify as good.”

Eliza smirked and asked, “Only the good ones, huh? And how are you going to judge whether somebody is good or bad?”

“My own judgement doesn’t matter. Only the judgement from somebody who understands love better than anybody else will judge that. Though, I’ve got a feeling our judgements will probably align most of the time. Anyways, as long as you know love, you’re probably good enough.”

“Well, darn. Never did find myself a man worth settling down with after the war. Guess I don’t know love yet.” Eliza leaned over the table, her eyes turning a bit more seductive as she looked directly into my own. “But maybe a nice, young, handsome man like you wouldn’t mind teaching this old lady a thing or two about love?”

Eliza might have been an old lady covered in wrinkles with loose skin hanging from her, but I still shrugged and said, “Sure.”

Eliza leaned back and blinked a few times. “Wait. You said sure? I—I was just joking—”

“Sure. You think I care about your age? I’m dating a girl who is,” I wanted to say “probably older than the Earth itself is,” but I resisted so that I wouldn’t rat Vala’s age out. Instead, I said, “older than modern humans, I’m friends with a sword at least a thousand years old, now also dating a tank just a little bit younger than you are, and I’m also dating a zombie. Well, I think we’re dating. Anyways, my point is that, at this point, if you’re a single woman and wiling, I’ll love you.”

Eliza looked me straight in the eyes for a few more seconds before smiling and laughing, having to hold her hand against her chest after a bit of her laughing fit due to coughing. “Oh—you, boy, you are something else. Never have I ever met a man like you. But, don’t worry about old me. I wouldn’t make a man with as many young looking ladies as you have to put up with me.”

“Are you forgetting the part about you being able to look however you want? You could turn yourself into a dog if you wanted to. But uh, if you want romantic love, I’d prefer if you don’t do that. Unless you become totally-not-dog like Delphi and her sisters.”

“Wait!” Clawdia shouted. “Are we all just going to ignore that he replaced her,” she looked at Marmar, “teeth with a snap of his fingers?!”

I couldn’t help but to smugly cross my arms over my chest before snapping my fingers again, causing the table and chairs to teleport to a platform in space orbiting our world. “A lot of things happened,” I said. “But these powers don’t exist for selfish reasons, so don’t expect me to use them often.”

Valkyria, after looking around at the beautiful sight of the stars all around us and our home below us, asked, “Then… what are they for?”

“This power exists so that I can make the girl I love happy—so that she’s not all on her own with all this responsibility anymore. Though, compared to what our new… let’s say, partner is going to be doing, me and Vala are only going to have a bit part in the universe’s upcoming chapters. Oh, actually, there is a selfish reason for this power.”

I stood up, walked over to the edge off the platform, and snapped my fingers.

Heh… you’re so cute… I’m going to whale so hard to roll for—

wait.

uhh.

Why am I in space?

Drake.

Why are we in space? How did we get here? Why are you grabbing me?

Oh.

Oh no.

Please.

Please don—

I threw Window into the vast expanse of space.

“She’s definitely nerfing me later,” I said. “Anyways.” I returned to where I was sitting before. “Anything you want. I’ll make it happen. All you have to do is ask.”

“I—I feel like we’re skipping a lot of important stuff here,” Clawdia said. “But… seeing you like this… is… kinda… really hot… nyaha…”

I looked at Clawdia and threatened to snap my fingers. “There are a lot of things this power can be used for.”

That was all I needed to say. Her eyes looked like hearts grew within them as her cheeks turned bright red, her tail rapidly wagging behind her at that point.

Back to Valkyria and her former crew, I looked at them and said, “All you have to do is focus on what you want. Think about your heart’s strongest desires, and anything else you might want even if it isn’t important or serious, and I’ll make it happen.”

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Eliza asked.

“Extremely.”

Well, darn. Then even if this is just me going crazy and hallucinating all of this… I might as well enjoy this delusional fantasy while it lasts, right?”

“Right. And it’s going to last for a pretty long time.”

With that, the women looked at each, thought about it for a few moments, and then looked at me with determination in their eyes.

“You ready?” I asked.

They nodded.

“Alright, then hold on to your dreams and get ready to welcome them into reality.”

With that, I snapped my fingers.

It was pretty incredible to think that even though I was given so much power that now, thanks to me and Vala, there was somebody out there with power that made both of ours look like child’s play.

But even if we were nowhere close to being as powerful as her, there was still all sorts of fun to be had with what I could do.

And unlike Vala, I had no problem stepping over things like free will in order to make the world a better place. After all, the first thing I did to test out my new power before passing out was going to Earth and making it physically impossible for anybody to litter or hurt nature.

Fuck their free will. I’ve got nature’s back.

Thinking about it, it was probably going to Earth and changing so many of the laws of reality there that caused me to pass out.

Oh well.

Worth it.