After the battle is over, it’s just the three girls examining the wreckage of soldiers and equipment and burnt-out buildings destroyed in the fighting.

The village was saved, but at what cost? It’s fairly tragic...

The lava girl, the one who came out of nowhere in the nick of time to save the whole town, is apparently now the companion of Abby and Esther. She did most of the work in fighting the soldiers.

She’s also...

Really hot.

Wait. Sorry. Abby needs to correct herself. This girl is really hot, in a literal sense. She’s burning up, in a literal sense. Seemingly made of fire, and exuding a strong warmth from her body. This is the result of being, indeed, a lava girl.

She gazes on Abbby with an intense curiosity, and asks, “So, what’s brought you two here? Not defectors, I assume? ”

“We’re from Earth,” Abby says.

“Earth?” The lava girl shoots a glance that is no longer so friendly. “That’s where the U.S. is from.”

“Yeah, that’s true, but on Earth we have many kingdoms. The U.S. is just one of them, and we’re trying to defeat them.”

“A power struggle?”

She shakes her head. “We’re trying to save the entire multiverse.”

The lava girl is clearly confused. “What is a multiverse?”

...

...

A few minutes of explaining later, and in fact closer to an hour, the concept of a multiverse, the concept of The Goddess and the reincarnation system that powers everything, and the war that the U.S. military has started to wage on many different worlds, is all jammed into this poor girl’s brain all in succession.

She looks totally out of it.

“So... I’m not just a person. I’m a person who’s been many other people. And I’m going to eventually be many more people later.”

“Exactly,” Esther says. “Our souls are trapped in an endless cycle of karmic destiny, washing in and out as we try to become more pure and more good with each iteration of ourselves. Eventually, if it all works as Destiny intends, we might be able to achieve a final peace. Perhaps The Goddess intended for this to be the end result of the multiversal system all along, or perhaps it is simply the way our souls were meant to travel in a cosmic sense, never-ending yet always changing.”

“...Huh.” The lava girl nods but says absolutely no thoughts in return. She is just too stunned.

“Well, don’t worry about it too much,” Abby says. “The multiverse stuff barely matters. It’s the war that does.”

“I see........”

“So, what’s your story? What’s your name?”

“Ah, right.” The lava girl holds her hands in her head, embarrassed that she forgot to talk about herself yet. “My name is G’L’K. I’m one of the last fighting age people my home has left.”

Her name is...

“Um, say that again?”

“G’L’K.”

“I have no idea how to say that out loud,” Abby admits.

“Oh, yeah, you humans don’t have some of those organs. Just try your best, and I’ll try to remember that’s how you people say it.”

“Okay, G’L’K.” It sounds completely wrong coming out of Abby’s mouth, but oh well. “The villagers told us that the town has been looted and all the young have been kidnapped to work in the laser mines.”

“Yeah,” she says. “I managed to escape, but they’re ruthless. They work people to the rock in those mines. All for hyperstone.”

“What is hyperstone, exactly?” Abby asks. “I’ve never heard of it before.”

“We harness it for all our magical tools,” G’L’K explains. “In fact, we lava people are made originally from hyperstone ingots. That is how we make new rocklings to raise. But the U.S. is stealing it all to help them build their big power plants.” She points up to the sky, where suddenly Abby realizes she can make out a kind of antenna far in the distance, just barely through the smoggy clouds. Then she realizes how gigantic it must be to be visible this far out.

“That’s big.”

“They’re sucking our world dry, and they’re sending our energy away with the hyperstone.”

“Ah-ha,” Esther says, gently hitting her fist into her other palm. “So the hyperstone acts as a sort of electricity cable, except it’s full-on multiversal. They must have taken some to other worlds, and they can transfer energy over to where the military needs it more without having to go through The Goddess’s Realm.”

G’L’K and Abby both look at her in mild incomprehension.

“To put it simply,” Esther tells them, “they have figured out a different way to cross universes! Just, a very limited one. But that means we could use a hyperstone ourselves, if we got our hands on one. I bet The Goddess would love this!”

“Is there any way we can bring some back?”

G’L’K shakes her head. “The U.S. has almost all of it. They’re getting desperate to find more as it is.”

“Maybe we could synthesize some from a sample,” Esther suggests. “Just a really small one.”

At this, G’L’K’s head perks up. “Y’know what? I’m hyperstone, a little. Maybe you can just take me!”

“You’d leave your world behind for us?”

“Well... I don’t want to. But I’m not powerful enough to save Lava World alone. I need your help, so I need your group to be powerful. So any way I can help you, helps all of us.”

“Good thinking,” Abby says. “Welcome to the Systemless Squad, then.”

“Also, I’m really excited about this whole multiverse thing.”

“It’s amazing,” Esther says. “You’ll love it.”

“How can we cross universes?”

“Oh, it’s pretty simple,” Esther says. “We just... What’s that sound?”

“SKREE!”

A whole flock of lava bats, flying towards them at top speed.

“Let’s get out of here!!!”

A pointless chase ensues before they can finally go back to Earth.