— — — — — —
"Soft, smooth, and long, huh? Yeah, I guess that fits, Selina."
"Of course, Harley is more correct. It's really good pink."
On the floating island called 'Utopia That Beckons Beyond', the silver-haired succubus nodded in agreement—acknowledging that Selina, who was actually twenty-six or twenty-seven, really did look like an eighteen-year-old girl.
Veyron: "..."
That description… should apply to her legs, right?
Veyron, who "never" pried into other people's private lives (since Harley would notice), had no idea what Merlin really meant.
But Soft, smooth, pink? Ok, his brain would think of this for a long time.
"You almost had me going there. What are you even pulling in the group chat?"
Veyron smacked a hand lightly against Merlin's butt, sending waves rolling across her body.
"I was just being honest about what I thought."
Merlin grinned mischievously and teased, "Come on, don't you think it's way better if everyone in the group is, you know, nice and neatly lined up together?"
"You seriously have something wrong with your head. It seems I'll come here more often."
After a brief pause, Veyron decided the succubus needed a quick 'purification meal.' "Let's do another round for today."
"Oh, again? And calling me a succubus—a sex demon? Tsk, just look at you."
"Hmph... It seems one round won't be enough for you."
---
A few hours later
Merlin lay sprawled on the bed with a blissful smile, all three of her holes overflowing with thick white cream, oozing out in obscene amounts like a scene ripped straight from hentai.
Veyron glanced over her with a satisfied nod, double-checked his work, then turned to leave.
Once he'd filled her with enough of the Almighty Source for cleansing, he returned to his floating island.
...
In his floating island, after some thought, he raised his hand and cast an extra layer of protection over the shared space's main city and the surrounding personalized floating islands.
The shield's purpose was simple: block all direct and indirect forms of perception.
With this in place, unless someone had the kind of overwhelming power that could crush him outright, things like "Kaguya sensing Merlin on the neighboring island" or "Merlin secretly peeking at Selina and her friends bathing in the hot springs" would never happen again.
"Daddy?"
Sensing the sudden appearance of this barrier, Kaguya Houraisan was the first to ask.
"It's fine. I just figured that as time goes on, more and more people will end up in this space, so I might as well put up a shield for everyone's privacy ahead of time."
That wasn't entirely an excuse, either.
After the shared space opened, it wasn't just him, Merlin, and Selina who gave free access to others.
On Hancock's side, there were her two sisters—Sandersonia and Marigold, who had finally gotten their figures back under control—as well as the aircraft carrier fleet pilots she recruited, including Nico Robin.
On Fubuki's side, there was her sister Tatsumaki, her diehard fan Lily of the Three Section Staff, and the two monsters she'd once kept locked up in her basement—Psykos and the Monster Princess Do-S—who'd since been relocated here.
On Chika Fujiwara's side, her older sister Toyomi and younger sister Moeha were around too. This shared space was basically the perfect patch for the "surface world of normal people versus hidden world of the extraordinary" nonsense she'd once sold them.
And Gwen's side… well, she went completely over the top. She'd relocated the entire Web headquarters to her floating island, and every day thousands of "Spider-Women" went in and out between here and Earth-∞.
Most of these people couldn't even begin to probe other islands—hell, they couldn't even map out the boundaries of their own islands, which spanned millions of kilometers in diameter.
And even if someone could peek at another island, it wasn't like every one of them would share Merlin's terrible sense of humor and bad habits. Still, it never hurt to be cautious.
"Ohhh."
Princess Kaguya glanced at Merlin's floating island with an expression that screamed: "I see. I get it now."
Veyron: "..."
After spoiling Kaguya, the next stretch of time kept Veyron super busy.
He passed along the same message to others in the main world—like Eirin Yagokoro and Yuuka Kazami—people he'd already unlocked access for and wouldn't mind gifting a set of Saint Cloth to.
And of course, the women from the fusion of World-∞ and the Treeborn World all received word as well.
By the time he wrapped up the circle of notifications and stepped out of the Treeborn World, some of the faster members who'd first gotten the message had already finished their designs.
"So this is what you're going with?"
Veyron looked over the finalized draft handed to him by the Shiroyasha.
"Yeah. For this kind of thing, 'good enough' is good enough."
Shiroyasha nodded firmly. "From experience, I know—when it comes to practical gear, as long as the stats are solid, even an ugly design turns into a beauty of its own strength. Besides, I had goddesses like Freyja and Aphrodite—actual deities of beauty—help draft this. The foundation's not bad at all."
She tilted her head. "One more thing. I don't think this level of artifact would be that rigid, but… if my form ever changes, this armor isn't going to turn into some kind of restraint, right?"
After all, a Star Spirit was essentially the main sprite of her celestial body—something that had no true physical form.
Though she usually appeared as a kimono-clad loli, in reality Shiroyasha could become anything she wished, from a mature older sister down to a newborn infant.
"Of course not," Veyron assured her. "Once it's bound through the Soul Light, whether you take on a human shape or something else, the divine iron's natural flexibility will adapt. As long as your essence stays the same, the armor will shift to match whatever form you take. That said, some key features won't change—so I had you all decide the armor's form up front before forging."
"Then I've got nothing to worry about."
Shiroyasha nodded, satisfied. The answer was exactly what she expected.
Veyron then brought out the materials he'd already prepared. Channeling his Soul Light, he melted them down into a single chaotic pool of molten metal, then gestured for Shiroyasha to add her own essence.
"…That's it?"
Having once watched smiths and gods of the forge work on divine weapons, Shiroyasha was stunned.
She remembered all the theatrics—drawing fire from the earth's core to heat the forge, summoning lightning from the heavens to hammer the metal, waiting for the perfect planetary alignment or for a seer to calculate the ideal moment, sometimes even demanding the future wielder's blood and soul as a sacrifice.
And here was Veyron's process:
Dump all the materials together, knead them into one lump, and… done.
"I'm just cutting out a bunch of unnecessary steps, that's all," he said with a casual smile. The golden glow of his Soul Light shimmered in his eyes as he added, "But if you don't hurry up, I might have to let someone else cut in line."
"I'm on it!"
Shiroyasha quickly pressed her Soul Light into the molten mass.
The metal solidified, and the Saint Cloth took shape.
.
.
.