Where the Predators Prowl: [56, 57, 58, 59]

56: Punching the Ward

"What do you see?" I asked, kneeling beside Nessy.

"It's a multi-layered ward," the husky girl murmured, her voice distant. "Reinforced with… belief. Sacrifice. Every memory, every emotion fed to the Well strengthens this thing. It's not just a magical construct; it's a psychic fortress… containing something. Possibly a dungeon core." Her eyes snapped open. "Clever. Sadly, I can't unbind it from here. The power source of the outer shield layers isn't local."

"So, where is it and can we punch it?" Adelle asked.

"Two extra sources," Nessy confirmed after a minute of Astral gazing, pointing first toward the ceiling, then at the floor. "Two ward cores. One is upstairs, in the main library's restricted section. It's a crystal matrix, heavily guarded by at least a dozen monks and secured by magisteel doors. The second..." she paused, sniffing the air and looking at the floor, one silver eye shining bright. "The second is deep below us. In some kind of subterranean grotto, completely submerged deep in water."

"Old monk bathwater?” Addie blanched. “Gross. I hate getting my fur wet."

"Then it's a good thing you're not going," I said. “On the account that we have a hydromancer on hand.”

“Arf,” Marlena nodded. “I can handle that.”

"The cores are shielding each other too," Nessy explained. "We'd have to weaken the entire ward and then get right up to them and punch hard. And to do that..."

"...we'd have to get past all of the monks inhabiting this place," I concluded.

"Exactly," Nessy said. "Which means we're going to need a distraction. A very, very big distraction."

"One that will draw the monks away from their posts and away from those cores," I agreed. “Time to call Fern.”

“Time to call Fern,” Nessy nodded. “Also, we gotta coordinate our two core-strikers.”

“How can we stay in touch with you underwater?” I asked Marlena.

“Just call my cell,” she said, tapping a dark earring and a thick bracelet on her left hand. “I’ve got a delver’s Voicecast Nordglade waterproof communicator. It Astralcasts the view n’ everything.”

Nessy pulled out her Ipaws phone and tapped it on the TA’s bracelet. “Connect.” A small picture of Marlena came up on the husky girl’s phone screen.

“Unbind Alec's phone from nullspace,” she said. My phone appeared in her left paw and she handed it to me.

I dialed the professor. "Ignis," I said.

"I'm here, Mr. Foster," she said “Report.”

"It's time for Phase Two," I said. "I need you to initiate a full-scale assault on the temple. Every Elemental you have. Make it look like you're trying to tear the whole place down."

"Understood, Captain," Professor Fern replied. "Consider the Krishna temple under siege."

The connection ended. For a moment, there was only silence.

Then, a low rumble started, a vibration that seemed to come from every direction. It grew steadily, a deep, resonant tremor of distant explosions that shook the dust from the cavern ceiling.

Nessy quickly described the directions to the underwater cavern to the TA and the seal took off running. Water eddies detonated around her and she flopped onto her stomach sliding down a side tunnel leading downwards.

“Voicecast Kristi,” I turned to the husky girl.

“On it,” Nessy tapped the side of her head. “Bind Astralcast via Dagaz connection to Krissikins!”

Kristi’s face appeared in front of me with silver sparks.

"Kristi, you're up," I said. 

“Yes?”

"Fly out of the bag, head to the library!” Nessy said. “Follow my instructions… North-west corridor, third passage on the right. There's a reinforced celesteel door. The core is behind it, in the center of the library, looks like a floating ball behind a barrier shield. Go!"

The dimensional bag flung open and Kristi erupted from it like a spring-loaded toy, Nemesis glider humming beneath her as she launched into the air inside the chamber. 

The dangerous looking, black glider ripped through the temple corridors with a high-pitched whine. I watched her go, my heartbeat accelerating.

The entire cavern trembled with more distant deep booms. The glowing runes on the walls flickered erratically. It sounded like a giant was trying to play drums on the temple roof with sledgehammers.

"Fern's having fun," Adelle commented dryly. “I do wonder how a Pyromancer is controlling that many elementals.”

“She is and she’s not,” Nessy said. “Well… not exactly. They’re a network of… some kind. A collective unconsciousness that obeys her for some reason. It’s weird. Maybe it's a dungeon artifact of some kind.”

“I see,” the cheetah said, fluffy, round, orange ears swivelling to the sound of explosions.

The husky girl’s hand found mine and she squeezed my fingers, trembling ever so slightly.

. . . 

The Nemesis glider screamed to a halt before a massive, reinforced magisteel door twice the height of a normal prad. Intricate, glowing sigils pulsed across its surface. Two massive bear prads covered in celsteeel armor glinting beneath their orange robes flaked the gate.

Kristi didn’t hesitate, she leveled the Decimator Railgun at the door and squeezed the trigger. Brilliant bolts railed across the door detonating upon impact and punching holes in the metal.

The glider roared as Kristi accelerated again. She flashed through the demolished door before the bears could do much. Barrier shields on the sides of the bike flashed, the oversized guards flying backwards as they tried to grab at her.

Kristi flew into a circular chamber lined with a multitude of bookshelves. In the center of the room, floating above a stone pedestal, was a spherical crystal matrix humming with power, shielded by a smaller, personal ward. 

Guarding it were there more Grizzly Bear monks, each easily nine feet tall.

"Interloper! The sacred texts are not for the eyes of the unenlightened!" one of them boomed, rushing towards her. “How dare you bring a glider to our temple!”

Kristi snarled under her breath, careening the glider up and to the side away from the bear, her finger tightening on the Detimator’s trigger. She fired again, aiming for the crystal core.

One of the grizzlies interposed his body between the railgun and the core. The bolts struck him square in the chest. He roared in pain as his orange robes disintegrated, his fur smoldering, but he remained standing, his eyes burning with righteous fury, celesteel armor flashing with defensive shield runes.

"You shall not defile this holy place!" he bellowed. “Iceball!”

Kristi swerved the glider, dodging a ball of ice that flew from the monk with a supersonic boom, the ice smashing against the gothic ceiling, leaving a deep indentation as it exploded into smaller ice shards.

The raptor girl zipped between the bookshelves, using them as cover as the monks fired more spells. 

. . .

Marlena torpedoed through the now flooded tunnel, her body moving with mad speed that would be impossible on land. The water around her was dark and cold, the pressure increasing. She followed the scent of the ward core, a faint, ozone-like trail in the water, her hydrokinetic prad delver senses mapping the underwater cavern ahead.

The tunnel opened into a vast, submerged grotto. Bioluminescent kelp swayed in the gentle currents, casting an eerie blue-green light on the scene. At the center of the grotto, resting at the bottom of a deep trench, was a massive, glowing pearl—the second ward core. Swirling around it, patrolling with silent, deadly grace, were three Orca monks.

They saw her instantly. 

One of them opened its mouth, and a concussive blast slammed into Marlena, disorienting her for a moment. She spun in the water, creating a powerful whirlpool that sent one of the Orcas spiraling away.

The other two converged on her, their movements synchronized. They were a pack, and this was their territory. Marlena met them with a joyful smile. The fight was a silent, deadly ballet of hydrokinesis. 

Marlena, a creature of the sea herself, was in her element, but so were the Orcas. She sent a high-pressure jet of water at one, only to be slammed from the side by another's powerful tail fluke.

She ended up wrapping her arms around the Orca that had struck her and using her immense weight to drag it down toward the trench floor. 

A blast of water into the mud below made things difficult to see, but Marlena didn’t need eyes to see in the deep. She spun in the darkness and opened her extradimensional bag, unleashing a torrent of water elementals at the monks.

. . .

"Kristi's in position," Nessy-Candace announced from beside me, her eyes closed in concentration, the laurel on her head pulsing as she drew power from it. "The grizzlies are tough, but she's holding them off. She's at the core."

She glanced at her phone. "Marlena's engaged. Three Orcas."

The cavern trembled again, more violently this time, rocks falling from the ceiling. The ward barrier runes around us flickered again.

"The shield is weakening," Nessy commented. “It should redirect itself soon…”

She took a deep breath.

"On my mark," Nessy barked. "Three... Two... One... NOW! Attack those cores!"

. . . 

The moment the command reached her ears, Kristi wrenched the Nemesis glider into a sharp turn, the anti-grav engines screaming. The five grizzly monks, who had been lumbering towards her, roared as she zipped between the towering bookshelves.

"Come and get me, you oversized teddy bears!" she taunted.

She wasn't just showboating; she was baiting them, drawing them deeper into the maze of literature. The monks, driven by their single-minded purpose to protect the core, crashed through the shelves in their pursuit, sending priceless-looking tomes and scrolls scattering like confetti. 

Kristi led them on a frantic chase around the perimeter of the circular room. Then, with a predator's cunning, she found her opening. As the grizzlies converged in the center of the room, momentarily blocking each other's paths, she pulled the Nemesis into a steep vertical climb, soaring towards the vaulted ceiling.

She leveled the Decimator railgun, but she didn't aim for the monks or the crystal core. She aimed higher.

"Checkmate, you furry bastards," she snarled, and fired.

A volley of brilliant energy bolts slammed not into flesh, but into the heavy, magisteel support brackets holding the massive, circular central shelving unit in place. Metal screamed and buckled under the assault. With a deep, groaning crack, the entire structure gave way. Tons of books, scrolls, and reinforced shelving crashed down in a devastating avalanche of knowledge and destruction, burying the monks under a mountain of their own sacred texts.

The library was suddenly silent, save for the hum of Kristi’s glider, dust billowing around her. She hovered for a moment, amber eyes blazing with triumph, before turning her attention to her real target. The crystal core, now completely undefended, pulsed innocently on its pedestal.

Kristi pointed the gun at it and pressed the trigger. The Decimator didn’t fire, seemingly out of bullets or magical charge.

Kristi grinned, a sharp, predatory expression. She pulled the Nemesis back, pointing its reinforced nose directly at the core. She slammed the accelerator.

The glider shot forward like a missile, its own defensive barrier flaring to life. It struck the core's smaller personal ward with the force of a battering ram. There was a moment of intense, screeching resistance as magic met magitek, then a blinding flash of light as the shield shattered. The Nemesis, barely slowing, plowed directly through the crystal matrix itself. The core exploded into a million glittering shards, the magical backlash sending a visible shockwave through the entire library.

. . . 

Deep beneath the temple, Marlena was having the time of her life. 

While two of the Orcas were occupied fending off the watery minions, Marlena focused on the third. She torpedoed forward, her body a streamlined missile, and wrapped her powerful arms around the struggling monk. "Gotcha!" she barked, voice more distorted “arf” than word.

She spun with him in a disorienting vortex, then unleashed a point-blank blast of pure hydrokinetic force from her palms. The Orca went limp, stunned and spiraling slowly toward the grotto floor.

She shot upward, putting distance between herself and the remaining two Orcas, who were just now shaking off the last of her elementals. She drew the water of the grotto towards her, the bioluminescent kelp bending as a massive volume of liquid coiled around her like a living serpent, like a spiral of destruction.

It wasn't a blast or a jet; it was a focused, spinning drill of water, a hydro-lance moving so fast it created a cavity in the water behind it. It struck the glowing pearl core at the bottom of the trench with a silent, devastating impact. 

The barrier shield shattered and the pearl, which had seemed so solid and powerful, simply ceased to exist, vaporized by the focused pressure. The shockwave that followed was a concussive implosion that sent silt and debris churning through the entire grotto.

. . .

Back in the Well cavern, the effect was instantaneous and spectacular.

The shimmering barrier around the Well flickered violently, its surface warping like a disturbed reflection. The hum of power escalated into a piercing shriek. Cracks of pure, white light spiderwebbed across the priorly invisible shield.

With a final, deafening crack that sounded like a universe of glass breaking at once, the ward shattered.

The psychic feedback was blinding.

I felt a wave of pure, raw emotion wash over us—a million stolen heartbreaks, a billion severed attachments, centuries of sacrificed love and pain all released in a single, silent howl.

The swirling vortex of silver and black energy within the well pulsed, as if a great and terrible heart had just started beating again.

We stood at the precipice, the way forward clear.

"Ah, yeah! The shield's down!" Adelle flexed her claws, a low growl rumbling in her chest.

"Time to get your dreams back," I said, turning to Nessy.

A wave of psychic pressure, a tangible pulse of grief, loss, and despair, suddenly washed out from the now-unprotected Well, and I felt a horrid, bone-gnawing chill take hold of me.

Nessy staggered, one hand flying to her head. "Sheet. That's... a lot of bad vibes." Her mismatched eyes widened as she stared into the vortex. “Something really bad is in there… it’s coming!”

57: Temple Core

The Well pulsed again. 

Not with light, but with a profound, abyssal darkness. The swirling, silver strands of energy within it coalesced, rising from the maw like a phantom emerging from its grave.

A semi-transparent, silver-veined squid-like entity, its head a grotesque, blossoming mushroom cap, its tentacles writhing masses of fungal hyphae bloomed from the well. 

It had no eyes, yet I felt its gaze wash over us—a wave of pure, psychic dread that promised oblivion. 

"Fuck me," Adelle breathed out. “It’s the Archangel Queen!”

The creature's psychic gaze settled on the cheetah. Adelle froze mid-step, her body locking up as if turned to stone, her face a mask of primal terror.

Then the psychic wave shifted to Nessy. The husky cried out, her body going rigid, eyes wide with a horror that was not her own. She too became paralyzed, a statue of a girl on the verge of a scream.

Finally, that terrible, sightless gaze found me. The psychic pressure slammed into my consciousness and I felt an order of pure, absolute stillness pouring across my soul.

[Halt. Cease. End.] It sang. [Give up. Surrender. Die.]

My muscles locked. My breath caught in my throat. For a horrifying instant, I was trapped, a prisoner in my own body, thousands upon thousands of depressive, suicidal, terrifying alien thoughts flooding into me.

“Unbind Astral connection,” Nessy howled, clawing at her head. She then fell, panting and shuddering to the floor. “You are a tree, Alec!” She barked, heaving. “Trees do not cease, they endure!”

Her yelp seemed to dislodge something in me.

I dove deep into my liminal soul, into the endless tree within. 

[CEASE! HALT!] The psychic commands of the Archangel Queen washed over me, but they were like wind against a thousand resilient branches now. They rustled my leaves but could not break my endless trunk. 

I took a step towards the well.

And another.

[CEASE! I ORDER YOU TO CEASE! STOP! SURRENDER!] The Archangel Queen seemed to recoil from me, a psychic shriek of disbelief echoing in my mind as I continued to walk toward the Well, toward the psychic monster, one slow, deliberate step at a time.

“Damn it, it’s gotten in again,” Nessy howled, clawing at her face. “Unbind Astral connection! Get into the well, Alec! Destroy the core… Get out of my head, you bastard! Unbii….”

She frothed at the mouth, twitching and flailing and then fell silent, passing out, curling in on herself. I glanced at Addie behind me. She too was out. 

Guess it was up to me then.

I growled and took another step towards the well.

[HALT! KILL HIM! KILL HIM FOR ME!] The psychic entity howled.

From a hidden tunnel I hadn't noticed, a figure suddenly darted out towards me. A female wolf, her gray fur streaked with white, her eyes burning with fanatic devotion, orange robe flapping.

She leapt towards me with the speed of a delver, a curved, obsidian knife flashing in her hand.

I saw the blade coming, but could do absolutely nothing about it, struggling against the psychic presence of the Queen.

“Die, interloper,” the wolf snarled.

The obsidian blade sliced across my neck. The world tilted, a searing line of fire followed by a wet, final gurgle. I felt my own blood, hot and slick, spill down my chest. My legs gave out. I collapsed to the stone floor, the world going dark at the edges.

I was dead. 

For about three seconds.

I feigned my demise, letting my body lie still. The well-keeper stood over me, panting, her eyes wild, my blood dripping from her knife. 

Then the knife went right through my heart, the wolf kneeling in front of me and whispering a prayer of forgiveness.

She left the knife in my chest, panting and looking about, ready to strike at any further threats to the Queen.

I directed Reconstitution to knit another heart beside the one that’s been sliced open, kneading my throat back together from within, sealing the wound from inside my throat but leaving a gash in my skin. 

When it was done, I slowly dug into my pocket.

“What?!” The wolf snarled, eyes wide at my motion. “How are you…”

I was on my feet in an instant, the plastic pepper container already in my hand.

I flung a cloud of pepper directly into her face.

She screamed, in sheer, unadulterated surprise, her hands flying to her eyes as she began sneezing. I didn't wait. I ran. Leaping over the crystalline-growth covered edge, I dove headfirst into the Well of Severance.

As I plummeted into the heart of the swirling vortex, I felt a hand grab my ankle. The well-keeper, blinded by pepper but still driven by its piloting Archangel, had lunged after me, caught me.

We plunged into the darkness together, tumbling through the air.

The impact was a jarring, final agony. I felt my spine shatter against the jagged rocks below. 

Darkness claimed me again.

I rapidly reconstituted, opening my eyes. I was at the heart of the monster, in a cavern of pulsating, crystalline flesh. 

[CEASE! HALT! STOP!] The Astral Phantom Queen howled, but the ocean of emotions she poured against me simply washed off me, became lost in my infinite soul.

The wolf gurgled beside me, trying to reach me, her legs broken, eyes closed.

I stood up, walking away before the broken, half-dead monk could reach me.

In the center of the cavern, suspended by silvery, fungal threads, was a crystal heart, a sphere the size of my own head. It pulsed with a cold, silver light, and I could hear the whispers of a million severed desires emanating from it, pounding against my endless branches.

[Stop! STOP! You want power?] The entity whispered in my mind. [I can give you that. You want love? I can make them all adore you. You want peace? I can cut away the parts of you that feel pain!]

It was trying to sever me now, to cut away my desires and feed on them. But it had made a miscalculation, never encountered something like me.

I wasn't just one man with a handful of wants. I was a tree. An endless, liminal tree with a billion branches, each one a different possibility, a different path, a different Alec with his own unique set of desires.

It tried to consume my desire for Nessy, and a thousand other branches sprouted, each wanting Nessy in a different way, each desiring a sliced off, divided part of her, now existing within Kristi, Candace and Adelle.

It tried to cut my desire for my pack's safety, and a million branches of new desires for their happiness, their success, their futures, bloomed in its place. The monster was trying to empty an ocean with a thimble. It was drowning in my infinite potential, its feeling-cutting knives ineffectual against my liminality.

"You took her songs," I growled, grabbing and pulling the obsidian knife from my chest. "You took her dreams."

I drove the knife into the crystalline-organic tissue of the heart. It resisted, like cutting through cold, dense cartilage. The psychic noise in my head intensified, screaming promises and threats.

"Shut the fuck up! Give. Them. Back!"

With a final, desperate surge of strength, I sliced through the crystalline roots and tore the crystalline heart free from its fungal moorings. It pulsed erratically in my grasp.

I didn't hesitate. I raised it high, and with all of my strength, I smashed it against the crystalline floor.

. . .

The crystalline heart didn't shatter on the first impact. Instead, a network of spiderweb cracks spread across its surface, and a high-pitched, agonizing shriek echoed through the cavern—another horrid wave of pure psychic pain, unleashing a billion stolen emotions. The pulsating, cold light within the core flickered violently, and the very walls of the creature's innards seemed to convulse like a giant esophagus.

The monstrous presence in my mind faltered, its control fractured by the damage to its core.

A torrent of stolen feelings—severed loves, forgotten passions, discarded dreams—erupted from the cracked crystal, washing over me in a disorienting, exhilarating flood. For a moment, I saw the world through a thousand different eyes, felt the joy of a thousand first kisses, the ache of a thousand partings, a thousand broken hearts.

They did not break me, did not make me stop.

From the edge of the cavern, the well-keeper wolf dragged herself forward. 

"No!" she begged, face smeared in blood, her voice a howling rasp, now seemingly awake as the control of her Archangel had been disrupted by me smashing the core. "Please... don't destroy it! The peace... the freedom from pain... you don't understand! She offers us salvation, liberation from the infinite loops that bind our souls!"

I ignored the bleeding, orange-robed monk. I grabbed and raised the cracked, bleeding heart of the Archangel Queen high above my head again.

"This isn't peace," I snarled. "It’s a lie!”

I brought it down again. And again. And again, with all of my strength–my fingers, bleeding, snapping and reconstituting. 

With each impact, the psychic screaming intensified. The crystalline cavern began to crumble, pieces of its roots flaking away and falling all around me, smashing to bits. Some of them sliced into me as they fell, but I reconstituted rapidly, smashing the core again and again, burning through my skill.

The core groaned, splintered, and then, with a final, blinding flash of pure, white light, it exploded.

Crystalline shrapnel tore through me, slicing, piercing, shredding. The last thing I felt was a serene sense of completion before the darkness took me one more time.

…

I reconstituted to the sensation of being airborne, cradled in strong, violet-scaled arms. My eyes flew open to see Kristi's face, her emerald feathers fluttering in the wind. Below us, the ruined catacombs of the Krishna temple shrank away.

“Wha…” I let out as my sliced up insides knitted themselves back together, wounds spitting out crystalline pieces.

"I got you, Alec," she said, nuzzling into me. She had one arm wrapped around my waist, the dimensional bag over her shoulders. “It’s done… we did it.”

“Where’s the others?” I asked. “Are they…”

“In the bag,” Kristi replied. “Got you all out right before the cavern ceiling fell on you.”

She blasted through the exit doors and out into the open, blowing past confused monks, slowing out at the green meadow beside the parking lot.

A colossal jet of high-pressure water erupted from a side wall of the temple, blasting a hole clean through the ancient stone and sending debris flying. The massive seal TA shot out of the opening on a wave of her own making, landing with a ground-shaking thud in the temple gardens before spotting us and giving us a cheerful thumbs-up.

Then, the Corpse Seeker suddenly arrived with a thunderous boom of displaced air, momentarily deafening me. The temple’s stained glass windows detonated, shattering. 

It flowed into existence like a river of blood-red crystal, coiling around the now-exposed temple. The remaining monks, who had been emerging from the building to oppose Fern's Elemental army, stared at the interdimensional abomination in horror. 

The crimson Omnid centipede didn't hesitate. It swept through them, its maw opening and closing, swallowing the monks whole. Then it buried itself through the front doors, obliterating most of the entrance and vanished inside the temple.

Principal Kerberos's fanciful 1950’s style glider car descended beside ours. The half-Omnid rolled down the window.

"A job well done, Mr. Foster," he commented, his magic-enhanced voice carrying easily over the hum of our engines. “Congratulations on passing your... extracurricular quest."

A silver notification flared into life in my vision.

[QUEST COMPLETE: Pest Control!]
[You have successfully assisted an interdimensional cryptid in eliminating a rival parasitic infestation. The System is unsure whether to applaud your initiative or recommend you for immediate psychiatric evaluation. We'll call it a draw.]

[Reward Issuance: The shattered remnants of the three temple ward cores, currently scattered across the astral and physical planes, will now be re-materialized and fused for your convenience. Please stand by.]

[Warning: Do not attempt to eat the resulting artifact. Despite its crystalline appearance, it is not rock candy.]

I blinked the message away just as the air in front of me began to shimmer. The world seemed to fold in on itself for a brief, stomach-lurching moment. Shards of glittering crystal—some the size of my hand, others no bigger than dust motes—materialized from nowhere, drawn together by an unseen force. They swirled and coalesced, light bending around them as they fused together with a soft, resonant hum.

When the light faded, a single, rectangular slab of translucent, blue-black crystal hovered in the air before me. It was about the size of a large book, its surface perfectly smooth, its interior swirling with what looked like captured starlight and faint, shifting colors. It hummed with a quiet, immense power.

Then it fell into my waiting arms.

Professor Fern landed her own vehicle on our other side. 

“Well done, Mr. Foster,” she smiled. “The temple is ours.”

"Thanks," I grinned back, cradling my crystal cube.

“You’ve def’ earned it,” Marlena barked, stumbling through the bushes. “Is that our reward? Swank!”

Kristi lowered the glider to the grass.

“It’s safe to come out now, you two,” she commented into the bag, raising the flap.

Nessy's head popped out, her face a mess of joyful tears. She didn't say a word. She just launched herself at me, smothering my face in kisses that were wet, salty, and utterly overwhelming.

"You did it," she yelled against my cheek. "You crazy, stubborn, beautiful, unbreakable human, you actually did it!"

A moment later Adelle emerged from the bag too, her orange-red hair a mess, her grin feral and triumphant. She joined in on the smothering, her purr a deafening rumble in my ear.

“So,” I said, once the girls released me, offering Nessy the cube. “Time to get your memories back?”

“Yepperoni,” Nessy nodded. 

She grabbed the cube with her paws. “Unbind memories, dreams and songs! Bind to me!” 

Her entire body ignited with silver fractals, one eye blazing silver.

“Wow,” she let out. “Damn… that’s… damn.”

“Got it?”

“Got it,” she said, looking past me. “So many dreams. A lifetime of songs. A lifetime of… missing you.”

She shoved the cube into the backpack and buried me in another tight hug, licking my face.

“Two lifetimes,” she added.

“Two?” I repeated.

“We have to get Bulwichu back from the superstore!” she smiled. 

“Who’s Bulwichu?” Adelle asked.

“A tree Alec and I planted with our love and positive vibes,” Nessy smiled. “Kristi helped make it bloom too. In another lifetime before this one. If Alec followed my instructions, it should still be in the Superstore Dungeon, waiting for us to find it again. Did you follow my instructions, Alec?”

“Bulwichu, huh?” I repeated, trying to remember. “You know… I’m not sure.”

“Let me help you,” Nessy said, reaching out to the sides of my head. “I know exactly what you need to remember now. Unbind memories!”

A radiant aurora detonated in my mind, a flood of lost memories reaching from some distant endless innards of my soul. It wasn't just information; it was a symphony of shared existence, a kaleidoscope of moments that crashed over me, each one sharper and more real than the last.

"Sandwichu!" I blurted out, grabbing Nessy by the shoulders. "That damned moldy, bitten sandwich! You named it Sandwichu and kept it in your pocket!"

Nessy’s eyes lit up and she clapped. "Yes! Yes! You remember!"

"The stop sign!" I continued, the memories tumbling out, exploding in my mind like colorful fireworks. "The conceptoid in the blue coveralls! I killed it, and then... then I wished for you! For my dog, Nessy, who saved me from the quarry!" I laughed wildly. "And you showed up, and you were... you weren't a proper dog, and I was so angry!"

"You were a total jerk about it," she laughed through her tears, her grip on me tightening.

"Your dumb face-licking!" I shouted, shaking her slightly. "The selfies! The marker flowers! We drew on my face to generate 'positive vibes' for the bulbees!"

"The ultimate vibe!" she cried out, her tail thumping. "My undying phone captured it all!”

"You washed my hair!" The memory was so vivid, I could almost feel the warm water and the gentle scrape of her claws on my scalp. "And I washed yours... and then you said you weren't actually cold, you just wanted to be close!"

She bobbed, nodding.

"Kira Pawstrong on the moon!" I yelled, the absurdity of it hitting me all over again. "You told me a collie was the first prad on the moon! Holy shit, I’m not even from this dimension…”

"She was! You sorta are! You’re the Alec of another world and also the Alec of my world!" Nessy declared. She threw her arms around my neck, her body shaking with joyful sobs. "You remember, you remember, you remember everything!"

She pulled back, her face radiant, and then, with a strength that caught me completely off guard, she lifted me off my feet and spun me around. The world became a blur of green grass, night sky, and the faces of our stunned packmates. I wrapped my arms around her, laughing with a freedom I hadn't felt in... well, in this life or the last. 

Her scent filled my senses—pine, lavender, and that unique, perfect something that was just her. This was real. This was what I’d been chasing through an eternity of retail hell.

And then, as she slowed the spin, another set of memories crashed in, these ones cold and sharp as broken glass.

The Magnetic Lynx. The nail gun. The spray of blood.

Her crumpled body on the tile floor.

The paperclip spiders descending, wrapping her in a metal shroud, taking her away.

Her final note.

...it will undo many things... Everything, except for you and our lovely RV domain...

The crystal tree. Bulwichu. The broken artifacts I'd taped to her branches, begging her to fix them, to bring them back.

The Leviathan at the end of time.

58: Windback

I blinked tears out of my eyes, staring at her. "You... you knew."

Nessy's smile faded, replaced by an expression of raw sadness. She didn't let go of me, just held me tighter as if afraid I might pull away. "Yes, Alec. I knew."

"The note... it wasn't a goodbye. It was a strategy guide. A set of instructions." I let out, rubbing my head. "You… you manipulated me. You died... on purpose, ran ahead of me. You knew what would happen, knew what I'd have to become! You knew that I would… reach the end of line, find the Leviathan… and slay her?!"

"There was no other path," Nessy said, her voice cracking. "I sniffed them all, Alec. A thousand different futures. In every single one, we lost. Ferguson was doomed the moment the Strands started bringing back food from the Superstore—it tagged them all as thieves for the hunters to exterminate. The store was a one-way trip; Insurance never lets anyone leave her domain, feeds on souls, turns all into parts of her dead shell.”

“Vivianne,” I let out, blinking tears from my eyes.

“Viv... was always going to die from the store's corruption, become subsumed by it one way or another. But you… I knew that you would be able to go on."

Her hands moved to cup my face, her thumbs gently brushing away the tears on my cheeks.

"I saw only one tenebrous way forward where we all had a chance," she said, her blue eyes pleading for me to understand. "One narrow, mad path. You had to become my Slayer. You had to reach the end of time and... start it all over again."

"By cutting you up into pieces," I finished, staring at her.

"By giving me a chance to come back," she corrected gently. "For us all to return back here, in a world where everyone is still alive, where we have a chance to do it right. Where the world is still mostly alright, where we can build a pack, where we can have a future." She leaned her forehead against mine. "I'm sorry I had to die. But look at us now, Alec."

Her eyes flickered to Kristi, then to Adelle.

"Look at our pack," Nessy whispered. "Kristi is breaking free from her family. Adelle is learning to be more than just a fist. Candace... Well, she's basically me now. A part of me, one who’s fighting her demons, struggling not to drown in the Astral Ocean… and this time, she's not alone. And you..." She smiled, a sad, beautiful, hopeful expression. "You're not just a boy running alone anymore. You're an Alpha. Our human. Our tree."

She pulled me into another hug, this one softer, deeper. "It wasn't a manipulation, Alec. It was a sacrifice. The only one I could make to give us a real beginning." She pulled back just enough to look me in the eyes. "I know it's a lot to process. And I know I broke your trust, manipulated you. But I'm here now. All of me. And I'm not going anywhere. Never again. Promise.”

Thank you for being my tree. For giving me your shade to rest under in a doomed world gone mad. Whatever happens next, remember I chose this path. Her words from the note came back to me. I chose you so that you can save me, save us, save everything.

I choked as I stared at Nessy.

“So?” She asked.

“Bulwichu is in the Superstore,” I said. “I followed your damned instructions.”

"Then we have much to do," Nessy said, hope burning in her eyes. "We have to get our domain back. We have to help Terry. We have to deal with the Lynx and Highway 69. We have to go to Omnithornia and punch some Omnids." A grin touched her lips. "And I still owe you, and you, Kristi, a proper date. In the Atomic Cafe. Like I promised."

“I have no idea what you two are chattering ‘bout,” Adelle commented. 

“Neither do I,” Kristi said. “Although I am feeling an unnerving sense of deja vu.”

“Do you want to know?” Nessy spun to Kristi and Addie. “We can all fuse tonight. You can all remember what happened, understand it all.” 

"Fuse all of us together? Hell no,” Adelle huffed. “I already told you knobs that one soul per body is my policy.”

“But explaining… all of these feels, all of these things will take ages,” Nessy huffed. “Literally ages!”

“That’s what words are for,” Adelle said. “Use them and take your time to tell me whatever you wanna.”

“But you ain’t gonna listen,” Nessy whined, now sounding almost like Candace.

“You’re right, I probably won’t,” the cheetah said. 

“I’ll listen,” Kristi said. “A four soul-meld sounds like a recipe for a psychic catastrophe though. No offense."

“It could just be three way,” Nessy suggested, wiggling her eyebrows at the raptor. “Ads doesn’t have to get in on this.”

“Couldn’t you, I dunno, do whatever you did to Alec?” Kristi asked. 

“You’re not a tree,” Nessy said. “It won’t work.”

“And fusing with you will?” The raptor girl asked.

“Maybe!” Nessy said. 

“Not very convincing there, dog,” Kristi huffed.

"Whatever, ya big chicken,” Nessy rolled her eyes at the raptor. “It was just an offer! A very generous offer, I might add. You're missing out on some premium, high-quality, soul-entwined snugglage."

She gave me a pointed squeeze, and I couldn't help but shake my head at her. 

My attention shifted to the trio of adults. They weren’t paying attention to our pack drama, talking amongst themselves in the parking lot. It sounded like they were discussing the fate of the now monk-free temple.

"Now that the property has been... sanitized, it officially reverts to town ownership. Which, for all intents and purposes, means it falls under the Omnid administrative domain,” Kerberos said.

"I could make use of the space," Professor Fern mused, her burning eye surveying the temple grounds with a tactical appraisal. "The catacombs and the maze-like structure would be an excellent training ground for young delvers. A bit more realistic than our gym simulations."

“A fair proposal,” Kereberos considered.

"I can have my Elementals handle the repairs," she added. 

"Oh, that's a marvelous idea, Igni!" Marlena clapped. "We could add a proper aquatic training facility in the sub-levels! The grotto is already perfectly suited for it! Oh! Oh! What about the upstairs temple and dormitories?”

“The school could use a dormitory space for the upper grades,” Kerberos considered. “Perhaps we can offer… our most promising students rooms within after the renovations.”

He eyed us.

“Oh!” Marlena clapped even harder. “Yeah, I do like the sound of that. It’s a bit austere there now, but we can let the students decorate rooms and add nicer beds and computer desks.”

"We'll discuss the specifics later," Kerberos said, his gaze returning to us. "Team Foster, you are free to head home."

“Do we have to go back to school tomorrow?” I asked. “I mean… our practical’s done right and Fern will be testing other teams.”

“Hrm.” Kerberos mulled. “Very well. Take a day off if you so wish. You’ve earned it.”

"Right," I said, turning to my pack. "Back to the hotel?"

A chorus of affirmative grunts and nods was my answer. I opened the extradimensional bag, and Adelle and Nessy climbed inside. The raptor put the bag on and I sat in front of Kristi, letting her pilot us home.

The Nemesis glider cut through the night sky, its engines humming, kristi’s left hand wrapped around me, her head resting on my shoulder.

"You gonna be in trouble for... all this?" I asked.

"Eh. Don’t give a fuck," she said, her voice defiant. "Let dad ground me, cut off my allowance, whatever. What's more important, some stupid hunk of metal that’s been sitting in the garage and on the wall, or our pack?"

. . .

The flight was short. Soon, we dismounted and the two girls tumbled out of the bag, flooding into the familiar luxury of our hotel suite. 

The door clicked shut behind us, and for a moment, we all just stood there, the silence thick with mutual exhaustion and a surreal sense of accomplishment.

Then, Adelle broke the spell. With a loud groan, she flopped face-first onto the nearest plush couch, her armor clanking against the cushions. 

"I'm not moving from here," she declared, pulling the armor pieces off. "Someone order food and wine. And maybe gimme a foot rub."

Nessy simply smiled.

"Best. Heist. Ever," she murmured, her tail giving a happy thump against my side.

Adelle reached out a hand and tugged on my jacket until I sat down beside her. Nessy, still attached to me, simply adjusted her position, half-sprawling across both of us. The pile grew as Kristi, seeing the tangled heap of packmates, let out a soft sigh and came to join us, settling on my other side and resting her head on my shoulder, her feathers soft against my cheek.

We were a tangle of limbs and quiet breathing, a heap of fur and feathers and hope. The adrenaline of the fight faded, leaving behind a deep, bone-deep weariness and an equally profound sense of connection. Adelle's purr started up again. Nessy's tail thumped a steady rhythm as she licked me, then Kristi, then Adelle as she helped us pull our armor off, unbinding belts and loops.

“Are you going to split?” I asked her, eyeing the passed out fox on the bed.

“Nah,” she said softly. “Not yet. I’m hoping if I stay longer in this body, maybe the Topaz cravings haunting my fox bod will lessen.”

The quiet comfort slowly, inevitably shifted. A hand moved from a shoulder to stroke through hair. A head nuzzled from a chest to a neck. A soft, questioning kiss was pressed to a jawline. There was no plan, no grand seduction. It was a natural, gravitational pull, the culmination of days of shared danger, emotional breakthroughs, and the undeniable, magnetic force of our pack bond.

Nessy was the first to kiss me properly, her lips soft and warm, a silent question that I answered by tilting my head, deepening the kiss. Then Kristi was there, her touch gentle, her kiss hesitant at first, then growing in confidence. Before I knew it, I was at the center of a slow, tender storm of affection. Adelle’s kisses were fierce and demanding, while Nessy’s were sweet and exploratory, full of wonder and rediscovered love. Kristi’s were a revelation—passionate and intense, a silent outpouring of all the emotions she'd kept locked away.

"I think..." Adelle murmured between kisses, her voice a low purr, "...we need more food. All this... pack bonding... is making me hungry again."

"Seconded," Kristi breathed, her lips brushing against my ear, claws sliding across my chest.

Nessy manifested Candace's phone from nullspace abyss, trying to navigate the Pawber Eats app while enthusiastically giving each of us nuzzles, licks and kisses. 

"What does everyone want?" she managed to ask.

"Everything," was the unanimous, breathless reply.

Nessy eventually ordered three of everything from the nearest 24-hour diner—more pizza, burgers, fries, milkshakes, a whole rotisserie chicken, and an entire chocolate cake and a crate of mana wine from the Inn’s catacombs. 

Mana replenishment was a serious business.

When the food arrived, we descended on it with a renewed, ferocious appetite. We fed each other bites between kisses, laughed with our mouths full, and made a complete and glorious mess of the hotel room.

Sated and sticky, we collapsed back into a single, sprawling pile on the bed. The frantic energy had mellowed into a warm, pure contentment awash in mana wine. I lay in the middle, an anchor in a sea of soft fur and warm feathers, prad pack bodies a comforting weight around me. Adelle's head was on my stomach, Kristi's arm was thrown across my chest, and Nessy was curled into my side, her rhythmic heartbeat and breath against me exceptionally soothing.

59: Foursome

The food-and-wine-induced haze of our post-heist celebration lingered in the air, a cozy blanket of shared victory. I lay back against a mountain of pillows, Adelle’s head a heavy, purring weight on my stomach, my fingers still absently stroking her and Nessy's curls. It was a moment of rare, perfect peace. Nessy hummed something musical about foursomes under her breath.

Naturally, Kristi was the one to break it.

She shifted beside me

"Alright," she said. "I can't just let this go. Alec. Nessy."

We both looked at her.

"The Superstore," she began. "Nessy's note. The things you said at the plaza, about burying Viv's body. The 'Slayer.' What the hell happened in that other lifetime?"

Nessy stopped humming her song, her expression shifting slyly. "It's... complicated, Kris."

"I can handle complicated, who do you take me for?" Kristi retorted. "I stole my grandfather's dungeon Decimator and spent the day fighting alongside a Binder fox fused to a Bard dog. I think my definition of 'complicated' has been sufficiently expanded. Talk."

Nessy pursed her lips . "Look, explaining it all... it would take forever. Words can't really do it justice. It's not just a story, it's a... feeling. A memory that's also a scar. A sacrifice and a path forward to the current us.”

"Try me," Kristi insisted, her gaze unwavering.

"No," Nessy said, shaking her head. "You wouldn't get it. Not really. To understand, you have to... experience it." She stood up. "There's a much faster way to bring you up to speed."

Kristi’s expression soured as she guessed to where Nessy was leading the conversation. "Oh no. No, no, no. I'm not a goddamn data port you can just upload your souls into!"

"Explaining is for nerds! Experiencing is for champions!" Nessy declared with Candace's laugh, striking a pose. "Come on, Kristikins. Don't you want to really understand? Don't you trust me by now?"

"Argh! You can't just... soul-meld with everyone who has a question!"

"Not everyone. Just you, Kris. And it's not a question. It's the answer to life, the universe and everything.”

I chortled at the Douglas Adams reference.

The husky’s words hung in the air for a minute, a stalemate between raptor stubbornness and dog-fox playfulness. I remained silent, watching them, knowing this was a decision Kristi had to make on her own.

Finally, with a growl of frustration, Kristi threw her hands up. "Fine!" she snarled. "Fine! If it'll get me some actual answers, let's get this over with. But if I wake up with a tail that wags or a sudden urge to sniff butts, I'm blaming you."

A triumphant, dazzling smile spread across Nessy’s face. "You won't regret this!" she chirped, pulling the startled raptor to her feet. "Okay, same rules. Open mind, open heart, open soul. Just... let me in. Well, no… accept our embrace, step into us. Good?”

Kristi nodded. She closed her eyes, her posture rigid with reluctance. Nessy placed her hands on the raptor’s temples, and the air began to hum as she gathered magic from the laurel on her head.

“Bind soul!”

This time, the light that erupted from their point of contact was a symphony. Not just silver, but a prismatic cascade of emerald, violet, blue, and silver, all swirling together, shattering and reforming in bewildering patterns. 

I felt the Dagaz bond thrum, a deep, resonant chord that vibrated through the room acknowledging the union.

Then, the light collapsed inward. Kristi's body went limp, and Adelle caught her before she rolled to the floor. With a grunt, the cheetah hauled the unconscious raptor over to the second bed, laying her down gently beside Candace's sleeping form.

A silence fell. Nessy stood in the center of the room, her back to me. She was perfectly still. When she finally turned, I felt my breath catch.

Her eyes. They were a kaleidoscope, a constellation of irises within a single gaze. The warm sky-blue of Nessy, the sharp silver-gray of Candace, and now, the fierce, molten amber of Kristi. Three souls, one body. She was still Nessy, but more so. Sharper, brighter, seemingly more.

She looked at her own paws, flexing her dark claws. She opened her mouth, then closed it, as if testing the feel of this new, shared existence.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

She looked at me. A slow, confident smile spread across her face.

"I've never been this much myself," she said, her voice a harmony of three undulating tones converging into one. "I've never felt so much. It's all... so very pawsome. And clawsome." Her smile widened. "It's all so clear now. I get it all. I get me. I get you. I get us."

She took a step toward me, her movements featuring husky bounce, fox swagger, and raptor confidence.

"There's only one thing in the entire universe I want to do now," she declared, her gaze burning into mine, a promise and a conclusion all at once.

"What is that?" I asked, my heart suddenly hammering against my ribs.

In answer, Nessy reached for the hem of her white hexasuit she worn under her delving armor. With a single, decisive motion, she unzipped it and pulled it off, letting it fall in a shimmering heap at her feet.

“Rawr,” Adelle commented, pulling off her own silver dress with a ravishing grin. “Sounds like you’re talking in my language now.”

My brain, already operating on fumes after high-stakes dungeon sim, Krishna temple dungeoneering and cosmic revelations, officially checked out. All that was left was instinct, a primal response to the overwhelming sensory input of seeing Nessy completely undressed in front of me and saying she only wanted one thing in life.

As I processed the view of her naked body, she took a step towards me.

Then her mouth connected with mine with a warm, insistent pressure, punctuated by the occasional playful nip of canine teeth. Her scent filled my head—pine, lavender, and now somehow under it all, the sharp, clean scent of a thunderstorm, the flutter of feathers and the warm, earthy smell of fox.

Adelle, not to be outdone, claimed my neck from behind, her rough feline tongue and sharp teeth sending shivers down my spine. Her purr rumbled across my skin, making my own body hum in response. 

“Uh,” I managed, my brain scrambling for something coherent to output. “This... this is escalating quickly.”

Nessy’s kaleidoscope eyes flashed at me with a smile. “Relax. This is just the beginning.”

“Aren’t you… a goodly Nazarite girl?” I asked as she let go of me for a moment. “What about the whole no physical fun before the soul bond?”

“That was before I learned that you’re my Slayer,” she grinned, slowly unzipping my hexasuit. “But yes, you’re right I don’t think I could have done this as just Nessy. But this is three times the feels, three times the me. Kind of impossible, pointless to resist the urge to maul you now. I think that we’ve earned this. All of us. Besides, I am my own soul-bond priestess now.” She laughed.

Nessy’s kisses grew hungrier, her paws roaming, tugging at my outfit with a playful impatience. I helped her, fumbling a little. Adelle’s claws traced patterns on my back, she pressed her breasts against me, orange tail curling around my leg.

I was pinned between them, a willing captive in sandwich of fur and unrestrained affection. The world narrowed to the feel of their bodies against mine, the heat of their breath, the intoxicating scents that filled the air. My own hexasuit joined Nessy’s and Adelle’s dress on the floor.

Nessy pulled back for a moment, her gaze intense, searching. Her finger, tipped with a dark, sharp claw, rose to my forehead. Gently, reverently, she traced a cross on my skin. Then, she traced the same symbol on her own forehead.

“In the eyes of the Slayer, in the heart of the Pack,” she sang in a trio of voices. “I bind us. Soul to soul. Now and forever. Do you accept me as your bonded mate until the end of time and beyond it?"

"I..." I let out.

"Are you seriously officiating the Nazarite blood soul bond right now?" Adelle asked, interrupting my reply.

“Absolutely,” Nessy said. “In front of a witness and everything.” She winked at Adelle. “Can’t get more official than this. To make us officially cosmically, legally, and spiritually a thing!”

The cheetah let out a loud, barking laugh, which earned her an immediate, sharp swat to the face from the husky.

“Bad girl,” Nessy scolded, her tone playful. “No making fun of the sacred blood rites. And you already claimed my mate without my permission. Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

“You snooze you lose,” Adelle fired, caressing my chest.

Another swat across the feline face, much harder this time. A meowl from Adelle who rubbed her cheek.

“Bad bad Addie,” Nessy sang. “Just couldn’t wait, could you?”

“Not really,” she said. “I knew that he’s mine. Knew it in my heart, in my soul, in my pants.”

I glanced at the cheetah who’s orange arms were wrapped around me, sliding down.

“I still can’t believe that Addie is part of you, Ness,” I said.

“Addie is my pride,” Nessy-Candace-Kristi smiled. “She's my fury, the part of me that punches first and asks questions later because waiting hurts too much. She's my loyalty that's so absolute it's self-destructive. She's the instinct to claim, to possess, to mark what's mine so fiercely that no one would ever dare take it away. She’s my courage, my inner fire."

“Oi, why you talkin’ ‘bout me in third person, like I’m some kinda old chewed up apple,” Addie huffed.

“What was that?” Nessy tilted her head. “Do I smell… feelings?”

Adelle, who had been lazily tracing patterns on my stomach with a black claw featuring her new name patterns, went still. She looked at Nessy, defiant expression gradually softening into something raw and vulnerable.

“Go on, say it,” Nessy purred. “I know you want to. I can smell your intentions, Ads. You cannot escape my thrice as powerful Astral gaze.”

“F-ffineeee,” A low, pathetic mewl escaped Adelle's throat. "I want in," she let out, a desperate, needy sound. "I want to be part of the official blood bond too. Not just... the side piece who was stupid enough to drunk-claim Alec first."

Nessy grinned again, a flash of pure, unadulterated Candace-style mischief in her expression. "Only as one," she said with a playful challenge in her tone.

Adelle threw her arms up with a groan. "Slayer, you cheeky fuck! You can't just keep absorbing people!"

"Tut, tut, I'm not absorbing," Nessy corrected. "I'm... Putting myself back together. With extra bits. Extra skills. Extra life experiences. Extra everything. Multiplying self. A sandwich of me."

The cheetah fretted for another moment, her violet-blue eyes darting between us. Then, with a long, drawn-out sigh of surrender, she slid away from me down from the bed, sinking to her knees. 

"Fine," she muttered, striped tail wagging. "Do it. Add me, you cheeky beerch."

Nessy laughed. "As you wish, kitty cat."

Her eyes locked with Adelle's. 

“Bind soul!” She declared, wrapping her white paws around the cheetah’s head.

The now-familiar silver light flared between them, a bridge of pure magic. There was no hesitation, no resistance from the cheetah. Adelle simply opened herself to the fusion, her expression one of eager surrender. The light pulsed, a blinding flash of detonating rainbows, and then Adelle’s body went limp, her head slumping forward as her soul was drawn into the husky.

With a casual, almost dismissive motion that clearly belonged to Adelle, Nessy nudged the cheetah's unconscious body with her foot, sending it tumbling off the bed to land in a soft, unceremonious heap on the plush hotel carpet. 

"Oops," she said, though her grin told me it was no accident. "Clumsy me."

Then, she turned her full, undivided attention back to me. All four of them, my entire pack—the Bard, the Binder, the Knight, and the Berserker—looked at me through one pair of eyes. The combined intensity of her gaze was a supernova of love, desire, and possessiveness that left me utterly breathless.

"Now," she whispered, "where were we?"

She bother waiting for my answer. She kissed me, and the world dissolved. 

It wasn't the tentative exploration from the shower or the playful nips from before. This was a claiming. A fierce, all-consuming kiss that was a promise, a challenge, and a homecoming all at once. Her hands were everywhere, tracing the large, unhealed scars on my chest left by the obsidian knife and crystal shards, tangling in my hair, pulling me closer until there was no space left between us.

Then her claw traced a cross on my forehead. “Do you accept this binding forevermore, my Slayer?” She grinned.

“I… do,” I said.

“Then so do I,” she bit her finger and traced blood crosses and Dagaz runes across both of our heads. “From now and on forever. No matter who we are, no matter where we are. To always find each other. No matter if the world burns and ends. No matter if we die. No matter if we are divided or multiplied. Blood bind the soul pact of [[[[Love]]]]! Absolute Dagaz!”

Lines of brilliant rainbows stretched between us, like fractal aurora suddenly exploding into existence between our naked bodies.

“It is done,” Nessy grinned and pounced on me.