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Argana's fingers were drenched in blood, a smile on her lips as she loomed over the fresh corpse of the other Amazon. Hot breaths escaped her lips, steaming in the cool afternoon air, at the exultation that came in the moment after the kill, the sensation of power and spirit alike sweeping into her from the dead. "I am glad to become one with you," she said to the dead woman.

"Haaa..." Kali, her goddess said. "You're s'posed to let them get levels before you kill them, Argana. There's no point killing the Level Threes for a Level Six, you know?"

"She ran directly into me," Argana said. "That is a challenge to the death. She wasn't even a commoner who might not have known better."

"It'd be better if she was a commoner, 'cause then you wouldn't have just blown the three other Amazons who had to die to get her there, plus Rhuja herself... ugh. Well, it probably gave you some excelia anyway. Let's update your Status."

"Yes, my goddess." Argana fell to one knee immediately, presenting her back to her goddess, and felt the rush of power. The fresh spirit of her slain foe, adding to her own power, the sweet ecstasy sending trembles through her body, goosebumps across her flesh at this moment when divine and mortal became one, when spirit and bloodshed became flesh and power. When the ephemeral became the fixed.

"Yep. You got a whole... fourteen points from that," Kali said, with a long sigh. "Great. Good job. Please stop killing other warriors because they piss you off somehow, only do it in the planned matches, okay? They're optimized! Optimized!"

"I do not start conflicts, I merely finish them."

"Ugh! You say that every time!" Kali muttered to herself, in a voice so low that an ordinary person's ears would not here. "Maybe I screwed up raising her somewhere... she's so far along I can't just start over, it'd take another twenty years to make another one... well, there's always... but she's not to the threshold for Leveling either..."

It was then that one of the soldiers arrived, pausing several meters away as she saw the corpse of the fallen Telskyuran aspirant. She stared for a moment at the body, then her eyes briefly flicked to Argana's blood-soaked hands, before she turned her gaze to Kali. "Ahm. Goddess," she said, falling to one knee immediately. "There is a party of female foreigners coming up. They move towards the capital."

"Who are they?" Kali asked.

"Three Amazons, one wearing a strange dress, the other two more ordinary garb. A blonde girl with a blade. Twin Far Eastern girls, both short and with prodigious busts. An ebony-skinned woman from the Dark Continent. And on the last, the stories are a bit inconsistent, but it seems to be five mothers who are identical quintuplets."

"Quintuplets? Damn," Kali said. "Hmm... you know, you can breed for multiple births, Argana?"

"I was unaware," Argana said.

"Yes. Multiple births are good for the kalyori, since you lose so much in the early stages. So I try to make sure the multiple birth stuff keeps going, big rewards for parents of twins, that kind of thing... they wouldn't be Amazons, but if their sons, but mm..." Kali shook her head. "How far out are these?"

"Three days by foot, goddess. They have apparently been moving straight towards the colosseum."

"Eh?! Who the heck'd be dumb enough to do that?!" Kali asked. "The Colosseum is the sacred ground of the Telskyuran people, and no foreigners are allowed to so much as watch it." I don't want anybody else stealing my methodology! Argana had once heard Kali explain it that way to her. She was honored to be one of those lucky enough to hear her goddess's secrets. She paused. "Mm. Argana," she said, pointing to her. "Go deal with them. Try not to kill every one of the twins and quints, but the rest are chaff or traitors, so get rid of them at your leisure. Not that you'll get many excelia for that... but, at least you won't kill any more of my developing farms while you're out."

"Which direction?" Argana asked the messenger.

"Down the Quester's Road, then at the fork, go to the Maiden's Road."

"Yes, my goddess," Argana said, simply taking off like a bolt a moment later, flicking her arms in the air to clear away (most of) the blood of Rhuja. She would find these strangers and handle them.

* * *

Argana stopped her movement northward as she caught sight of the party. A word almost escaped her lips, unbidden: Hiryute? The two Amazons wearing traditional garb - she had known them in their youth, ten years ago. They were the Hiryute sisters, she was fairly certain... or perhaps her eyes were deceiving her.

One of them was bustier than the other. Mm. Perhaps not traitors, then. She had heard of the pair's accolades in Orario, their grand accomplishments after being allowed out of Orario by their goddess. She hesitated for a moment in contemplation. Kali would no doubt wish to know who was coming towards the capital. She had rushed out, so they were not even in motion, having made camp for the night. If she rushed back, then they would still have two days to prepare...

But that was Tione, Jormungandr. Tiona, known in Orario as Amazon. To give up the chance to fight them... to exult in that moment of glory, to make them part of her or her part of them...

She couldn't resist. "Sorry, goddess," she whispered to herself - then bolted down the side of the mountain, aimed like a lightning bolt towards the bustier of the Amazon twins, who was clinging to one of the quintuplets, pawing at her, complimenting her strangely... with sudden force, she aimed her fist right at the skull of the woman, wanting to inspire proper rage in the Amazonian.

Her fist slid through empty air, and the woman in question suddenly disentangled herself from Tione, the other four quintuplets moving as one. "Level Six," one of them said. "Let me handle it."

At that point, scales fell from her eyes. No longer was she looking at a tall, slender-yet-fit older woman: she was looking at a tall, slender-yet-fit man. Short hair was suddenly masculine, small breasts were suddenly hard pecs, and a strong jawline was striking. "An interesting trick," she said. "I wonder if when I take your spirit into mine, I will-khh?!" She was cut off as her body was yanked to one side suddenly, sending her reeling as she tried to recover her footing, whipping her head around to face the attacker, long hair flowing behind her in slow motion. It was the same man. Another of the quintuplets.

The rest of that group gathered up, though one of the quintuplets remained with them, the Amazon still firmly attached to his arm, glaring at Argana with seething anger.

"Hm. So you fight as a team, eh?" She reached for the space where the yanking had come from, but found no sign of any attachment. A knife was drawn by her foe, slender and wicked, a delicate, well-crafted thing. She dodged as it was hurled her way, as another was, and a third, and then she had to move, as a second of them tried to attack her, a punch forcing her to duck. A moment later came a kick from behind, sending her reeling as she tumbled forward, scarcely able to keep her footing and wits about her, spinning to face the group.

"We're not a team," the four men said as one. "One person, many bodies," he explained.

"I see. So then you won't mind too terribly if I kill one or two or three or four or five of you," she said, grinning wickedly.

"That's definitely be inconvenient for me-hah!" He dodged her strike, a sudden whip kick at the one behind her. A moment later, he grabbed her ankle, and she tried to spin through the air, aiming to kick his face with her other leg, but he dodged that, instead taking advantage of her lack of footing to hurl her entire body into the ground, just slamming it against the hard earth, making her gasp.

A thrill ran through her body at that. The same rush when she knew she would soon take in another Amazon's spirit, but also something more. Still, she could fight, so she twisted as the man raised her into the air again, leaning forward and around, managing to clamp onto his head with both hands as she was almost sent sailing down to land on her ass. Her free leg kicked at his stomach, and slid around it through some impossible motion she didn't quite catch, a soft blue glow emanating from the man.

A heavy punch hit the back of her head before she could do more, and a breath escaped her mouth as another punch, and another punch, hit her, each one a staccato of something truly wondrous and alien and desirable, spittle flying out of her mouth. She was going to die here, to be killed, to be consumed by another, stronger warrior. Every moment of her life up until now had led to this moment, to become part of such a strong man, to be absorbed into him. She struggled to the last, of course, but she could feel the way her hands didn't respond so quickly thanks to the repeated strikes to the back of the head, the pain blooming out like a spiderweb of blood from behind her eyes. But she was going to die, and that was just as perfect as when she'd killed Rhuja a couple hours ago.

For some reason she didn't know, her nipples were hard as if it were a terrifyingly dark winter, her clitoris ground against her panties, and her sex grew slick despite the fact that she had no urge to pee.

Then the lights went out and she lost consciousness, to be devoured by a black void, her spirit offered up to this wonderfully handsome and powerful male attacker. The last sensation, as all her limbs' information vanished from her mind, was a powerful throbbing feeling in her abdomen, like a hunger but not in her stomach. She had no time to wonder what it was.

* * *

Rei was the first to speak, once I had the attacking Amazon properly unconscious, lying her gently on the ground. "Are there any others? I don't hear any."

"Me neither," Tione said, still curled into my arm. She looked at the Amazon with a sharp glare - more jealous than anything else. She knew that the plan was for me to defeat Amazons, get love confessions, and simultaneously overthrow Telskyura while becoming much more powerful, but that didn't change her feelings. With the body that she was attached to, I gently tilted her head up to me, and just gave her my most ferocious kiss, tongue sliding into her mouth as I did so. She hummed happily, reaching down for my groin, checking to see if I had a hard-on. I did, so she started to guide that body into our tent, not breaking off the kiss as she did so.

"Weird," Rei said. "Only one person? And it's... that's Argana, right, Bitch?"

"It's Argana," Tiona answered. "I recognize her. We're only a few days' walk out," she said, frowning. "Maybe she was meant to scout?"

"We should move quicker," I said, after thinking it over. "They'll probably realize something went wrong soon enough, when Argana doesn't come back. The Level Sixes can run the fastest, and there are eight of us, versus Rei, Julia, and Meslya. We can carry them. We'll make a rush for the capital. Do you think we can make it before dawn?"

"Mmm..." Tiona thought. Elsewhere, overhearing the discussion, Tione broke off the kiss, a faint whine escaping her throat. Rather than fucking her, I was going to go 'seduce' a bunch of Amazons. With my fists. "Maybe. If not, then a bit after, if we just run flat out all night." She rolled her shoulders, then squared up. "Right! Who wants a piggyback ride!" Ais raised one hand. "Ais, you're Level Six."

"I'll take a piggyback ride!" Julia said. "I mean, I could also ride on goshujinsama's back, too. He has four, even saying that Tione's body can't carry a woman."

"Ah, that's true. Yep. You do it, Drake."

"Don't worry, babe," Rei said, a smile on her lips. "I'll just turn into some birds. Nice and compact. That's me. Low-maintenance. That's why I'm the best wife." I patted her head, which made Ais pout, so I patted Ais's head too.

"Ahh, goshujinsama's so mean, headpatting the other girls but not me! It's like being cucked but not as fun!"

"You sound like you're having fun," I said. "What should we do with Argana, you think?"

"It's... probably a bad idea to carry her with us. She totally turns into a huge Finn simp after their fight, like, Tione levels," Rei said.

"What's a simp?" Tiona asked.

"It's what Tione was for Finn, and now is for Drake," Rei explained. "Anyway, point is, Argana's gonna be cray-cray on waking up, and we don't want to risk her joining the wrong side in the upcoming fights, so..."

"We could break her legs so she can't follow!" Julia suggested. I stared at her. "She can heal! Just not right away, goshujinsama! Cass turned out fine, and she wasn't a Level Six!"

"How about..." What the fuck could I possibly bind her with? She was a Level Six. "How about burying her up to her neck in the ground? That's hard to get out of, but she should be fine."

"Oooo, you should do that to me some time, then you could let strange men just come by and pee on and/or fuck me," Julia suggested.

I just shook my head and got to digging. With four superpowered bodies, it went pretty fast, and then I dumped Argana in the hole before covering it back up. "Hopefully it'll hold, since she won't have leverage, or tools," I said. "I don't want her deciding to join in on Telskyura's side... let's go now, just in case."

* * *

Argana woke up, finding herself strangely buried up to the neck in the ground. She took a moment to remember what had happened... she'd been beaten! By a man! An incredibly powerful man, with a sexy body and a handsome face! Her abdomen pulsed, like a hunger, but not in her stomach... she remembered Tione being plastered to that man's arm, and she thought, I wish I was Tione!

Ah...

Aha! This was that romance of the stories! The tales passed down from before Kali came to Telskyura, still spoken by commoners and occasionally whispered into the aspirants' ears. "Falling in love from getting defeated in battle!" She declared. That was what she was feeling! Love!

But he already had Tione, at the least... she needed to seduce him! She wormed her way up out of the ground, only taking a minute or two to get her arms out, at which point it was easy to just pull out her legs, earth tumbling away from her body. She could tell the way they were going... but just meeting him again wouldn't seduce him! She needed to find out what he liked! She followed their trail away from the capital. She'd ask the commoners questions and learn the truth!

* * *

"Ah, she said she was wearing that dress for a guy."

"No, I don't know where she got it."

"I don't! I really don't!"

"Oh, Jehra asked about it!"

"I think I heard it was the seamstress in..."

At last, she'd found the source of the dress. A seamstress in a small town who was quietly quivering before Argana. "She wanted a floral dress in pastel colors."

"Make me one too," Argana demanded, just slamming coins on the table. As an aspirant, using money was a little low class... but this was love! It was important!

The girl with the dress... she must have been trying to seduce Drake too! And she was pretty sure it had worked! She'd moved like somebody without a falna, which meant she was a commoner, and the only reason he'd have a commoner in his party is if he had been seduced by her...

Or that she was his trail guide. But Tione and Tiona had been Telskyuran, once! They could definitely have made their way to the capital! Telskyura was the greatest country in the world, who would forget its every road and curvature just because they'd been away for a decade? Tiona might have been a bit dim sometimes, but not Tione!

Argana spoke up again. "And do you know anything else about that dress? Or that style..."

* * *

With us moving at max pace and Meslya guiding us, it didn't take too long for us to arrive at the capital. There weren't even defensive walls to protect the place, with them just relying on the obvious reality that this was the capital of what was probably the militarily strongest country in the world. In a way, it was even a prestige point, to not put walls around the capital. Nobody can fuck with us, we don't even need walls.

Of course, part of being the capital that didn't need walls to defend itself, was having thousands of people with a falna, who obviously recognized the group of four men that came up towards it as unwanted intruders. (I'd left the rest of the party a bit back. Close enough they could come in to help if they had to, but this was, literally, something I had to do myself.)

The shouts and din of surprise were chaotic, all spoken in the local tongue, which I unfortunately didn't understand. It took no time for about a dozen different Amazons to try to rush me down. Most of them were painfully young, no older than twelve, and at a glance I wouldn't have said a single one older than six was a Level One. By implication, every single child at that age had been put through enough hell to make them a Level Two or, more likely, die trying. I felt a sort of visceral, immediate disgust with Kali, and I just swept through the mob with ease, striking each on the head or legs, sending them careening into the ground, whimpering in pain. A few more low Level girls tried to attack from the sides or by surprise, and I tried to go easy on them. They were, literally, just kids. But, they were also trying to kill or seriously injure me.

More came in a second wave. They were older and higher Level. Girls in their teens and early twenties, armed and ready, swords and spears at the ready prepared, some clearly having weird Skills they planned to use, gauging by the way they held themselves. One tried chanting some magic, but I just grabbed her with a flick of my wrist, and yanked her right into my fist, sending her to the ground in one blow, her hands going to her face as she whimpered and whined, a bit of blood coming out from where I'd possibly broken her nose.

Their shouting got more intense, the cries of everybody else getting louder, carrying deeper into the capital even as the group tried to inch forward. It didn't help them, though. They were just Level Threes. I was weaker than them, not that long ago, but they were crushed with ease, and as much gentleness as I could manage, their swords and spears broken just to avoid the tiny risk of getting stabbed in the back later on. The mound of Amazon women and girls surrounding me was, by that point, in the dozens. All of them having a falna. I'd done my best to avoid hurting them too seriously, because I felt sorry for them, more than anything else. They were child soldiers to the last, even the ones who were now old enough.

"Jahee ku adarja..." One woman stood before me, waving a hand at the other Amazons behind her, and they fell back. She was fairly pretty, with the classic Amazonian garb of "way too little," short pale hair that reached to her shoulders, and a curvaceous, adult body. Not a child like the rest. Not even a young woman. Someone closer to my age, than to Julia's. I could tell despite the veil she wore over her lower face.

There was even a goddess behind her. A dark-skinned, short girl with a skull mask. Kali. She listened to the woman's gesture and stepped back and away, glaring at me with hate in her eyes, her gaze flicking to the forms of her defeated Amazons. She wasn't angry that I had hurt them - there was no hint of sympathy for her familia's pain, there. She was worried that I'd broken them.

"You..." She switched to Koine instead of the local tongue. Her voice was slow and halting, in a way like Cass's own. Not a native or practiced speaker of Koine. "Defeated my sister. Yes?"

"Yes," I agreed.

She nodded to herself. "In that case... I will... take you into me..." She said, and I just blinked in confusion.

"Don't you normally wait for me to beat you before-" I started, and she rushed forward like a lightning bolt.

"Di alsa," she said, and I could recognize that in an instant. Short chant magic. I would have doubted that the black-purple film that surrounded her hand was going to try to make me come real fast, even if I hadn't heard about it from Tione and Tiona. Bache's iconic magic. Velgus. It poisoned the target, wherever the strike touched. I got ready to dodge to the side with the body she was aiming for, planning to kick her in the stomach as I moved - and then the film covered her entire body and I had to move, hurling out a hand for a building and just yanking myself away, careening through the air before landing against the surface.

She didn't stop, instead turning it into a skid, her body leaning to one side as sand and dirt and stone were kicked up into the air, pulped by her bare feet pounding into the ground. Her gaze fell on the next closest body, and she moved for it, and as it began to try to draw her into a chase, another body reached out behind her, grasping her with a strand of Fate to try to pull her back.

Unfortunately, physics is a bitch, so it resulted in that body jerking forward, threatening to careen right into her. I had to burn Essence, sliding impossibly around her body, skidding across the floor off to one side and managing to get to my feet only later, the woman's gaze turning to that body to try to consider which one to rush down. She decided to keep going, a mistake that I tried to capitalize on by yanking on her again. It slowed her, twisted her, and she decided to go for that body instead.

"Bache, kar mir! Kar mir! Ansa kar mir, ja Level Seven!" It was Kali speaking, and it didn't take a genius to translate: Bache, kill him. Kill him. If you kill him, you'll reach Level Seven. Or something to that effect. The other Amazons began chanting as well: "Kar mir! Kar mir!" Coming out in a chorus.

She kept up her speed, moving with the alacrity of a Level Six, as all four of my bodies that were present for the fight got involved, reaching out to grab her, tugging at her, when they weren't pulled along by her velocity. The body she was going for ran backwards, up into the sky, earning noises of shock and surprise from the crowd, but Bache just leapt into the air after me. One of my bodies got tugged up off the ground after Bache, even as her targeted body had to burn more Essence to Duck Fate again, a brilliant blue glow encompassing all of my bodies, everywhere. The body that had been tugged snapped out for a nearby pillar, and both my body and hers had their motion suddenly arrested, jerked by the sudden addition of weight. Bache had nothing to push off of, in midair, so she tumbled towards the ground.

Towards part of the group of Amazons who had been watching. I really doubted it would be good for them to have her land on them, so with every body, with all my might, I pulled, tugging her towards me and away from them, and just - just barely, she landed a few feet away from the group, her feet slamming into the earth and kicking up dirt that created a small smokescreen behind her. She tilted her head, contemplatively.

"An shar vars," she said, holding out a hand to one side, keeping her eyes loose so she could monitor me for any movements. Kali pushed at one of the girls in the crowd, and I didn't need to be a genius to know what Bache was thinking.

I yanked again, desperately forcing her towards me, and she smiled with her eyes.

"You... protect even Amazons?" She asked. "Weakness dies."

"Stupid belief," I responded. "Humans are social creatures."

"Not human. Amazon."

"Works the same," I replied. "Societies like this turn into tyrannical, self-perpetuating..." and I could tell by the glaze in her eyes she didn't understand those words. "Violent authority is the weakest kind. It can apply only when its gaze falls on its victims. Other kinds of authority rely on legitimacy. Or, in short, who would you rather serve? A king that protects you and yours, or a queen that kills them to squeeze out a little more power? Who will you support even when they can give you nothing any longer?"

"Mm." She said, tilting her head. Then she rushed forward - towards my bodies, but not towards any one of them. It took me a fraction of a second to identify her plan. She was aiming towards the mounds of injured Amazons I'd made, the ones who hadn't managed to crawl or hobble their way away from the fighting. She didn't want to disguise it: she wanted to force me to block her, to get touched by Velgus and suffer some extreme poison that would fuck my body to hell, if not kill me outright.

I switched to knives, hurling two dozen in a fraction of a second, littering her path forward. I'd rather not have killed Bache, but I wasn't going to spare her life if the choice was between her and her soon-to-be victims. The fact that I knew her name and not theirs didn't change how valuable they were.

She stopped short in surprise, skidding to a halt, most of the knives passing her by harmlessly, the remainder needing to be individually dodged. She looked at me closely, even as one of my bodies started grabbing Amazons and halfway hurling them away from the battle. The kids might have wound up with carpet burn, but that was better than dying of horrific poison.

"You're better with knives than fists," she said, at last.

"Knives are for killing. I don't want to kill you, but I will if you force me."

Kali shouted at her, and Bache tilted her head for a moment. "Then I guess I will force you. An shar vars!" She shouted, and one of the Amazons was sent in a tumble forward by the others, hurled out of the crowd by the simultaneous push of a half-dozen high Levels. Bache raised one hand towards her, the scene of her movement going like slow motion, a bullet time show like a woman who was about to get impaled on a spike. I tugged at her, but she'd set her feet deep into the ground, and she didn't move more than an inch, scrapes of dirt as she maintained her poise, a smile in her eyes as she remained perfectly positioned to kill the woman.

I tugged the woman to the side at the last possible second, yanking her out of Bache's reach as the woman's arm jutted forward in a sudden knife hand strike, leaning forward to cross the last half-foot to get her. It cost her her firm footing, though, and I yanked at her, pulling on her body sharply - and once she lost her footing altogether, the body in the air pulled on its strand, yanking her up so that she was simply suspended a few meters off the ground, carefully repositioned into a spot that was too far to reach anything or anyone.

She struggled for a good minute in that pose, the Amazons who had gathered all watching in fear and awe. She bounced around futilely, but she was, in effect, suspended in the air. The film of Magic that had surrounded her eventually subsided, and she was left panting for breath in the air after having exhausted herself, magically and physically.

One of my bodies on the ground leapt up, grabbing the back of her head and landing a knee in her face. She sputtered as I broke her nose, and then stopped moving at all, going limp and unconscious.

I kept her in the air anyway. I had three bodies, which was more than enough to handle the remainder of the Amazons, who shortly joined their sisters in the "ass kicked club". That left just Kali, who stared up at me with a furious glare.

"You motherfucker! Who are you, huh?! Which familia?! This is my familia! My country! I built it up and you came in here, and you're trying to turn the whole thing into a fucking estrogen party, aren't you? That's the real reason you didn't kill anybody, you fucking perv, the only value of Amazons to you is that they've got tits!"

I resisted the urge to just kill her. Loki had managed to drill into my head that there would be severe, negative consequences to doing that. Even if Shiva had done the same to Enyo... well, Enyo had been planning to blow up the Tower of Babel and uncap the Dungeon, fucking everything up for every other god for who-knew-how-long. They were a little more willing to cut some slack, maybe, possibly. Plus she was stuck in a Guild prison indefinitely.

For me... I didn't plan on dying, but pissing off all the gods didn't sound like a good time either.

Back in Orario, I had Loki update my Status. I was a Level Seven now.

Kali kept screaming at me, of course. "You're ruining everything, you ruined my whole country, do you know how long it took me to get a Level Six?! I had to go through so many generations to even get Level Fours, and this is all with the infrastructure, to get even close to where we were I'll have to double the kalyori-"

I asked the question I had to. "You put babies in front of goblins and give them knives?"

"No, that's fucking stupid," Kali said. For a fraction of a second, I wondered if maybe she wasn't as bad as I'd heard. "Babies can't even walk. I wait until they're a year old for that. The ones who can't hack it, can't hack it."

Intellectually, of course, that's moronic. One year old babies, even imbued with a falna, can't possibly be expected to effectively fight a goblin. The ones that succeed do so through pure luck. Even whatever skill is involved, is presumably due to random chance, happening to mature that little bit faster. It's just stupidity. This idiotic idea that the harder the training, the better. No, the better the training, the better. Sometimes better training is hard, sometimes better training is easy. Making one year olds fight a goblin is obviously useless, stupid training that just gets kids killed for no reason. The only actual benefit that might have existed was that she didn't have to feed as many kids that way.

Emotionally, though? It's something people talk about. When you have kids, kids getting hurt hits different. That's why, when you watch movies, they sometimes go for maudlin "kid dying" stuff that feels contrived. It works differently on the parents.

I had a very cute Amazon baby who was my beloved daughter. Her name was Amaranth. Aisha and Tione both had at least one each on the way. If they had lived here in Telskyura...

In the back of my head, empowered by reaching Level Seven, by beating up dozens of Amazons and seeing, if only out of the corners of my eyes, the way their love and fates twisted from the experience of defeat, I put together something. Any moral compulsions I had against what I was about to do, died from Kali's words.

All these thoughts going through my head take time to discuss, but in the moment, they were in and out in a fraction of a second. I reached towards Kali's stomach, and landed a sharp blow there, knocking the breath out of her, even as my fingers curled around a knot of Fate and tugged. I pulled, and twisted, and attached it to me, some inspired derivative of those times I'd twisted together the Celestial Bliss Trick strand between Julia and Rei. But this wasn't lust or pleasure that I was manipulating. This was love.

But not love as the emotional intimacy born of long care for one another. Not love as even the passion that ignites at first sight and never fades. Love as Venus understands it.

Love as emotional dominion over another. A one-sided, sycophantic, reverent, inescapable love.

Kali just gasped from the blow. I could see in her eyes the way her head swam from what I'd done to her. Cash and Murder Games. That was the name of the Charm, I knew it the moment I finished performing it, I recognized it instantly and perfectly as Kali herself trembled in place. It was one of the most iconic abilities of the Sidereal Exalted, fully within my specialty as a Chosen of Venus... but I'd never developed it because I didn't want to mind control people to fall in love with me.

Not until that very moment.

"Kneel and kiss my feet, you evil bitch," I said, the words coming out like a snarl - and instantly, Kali obeyed, collapsing to her hands and knees, her lips softly pressing down against my shoes. There was no hesitation in her movements, only self-recrimination for having pissed me off. From behind her mask, she looked up at me, hesitant, hopeful. Wanting affection.

Maybe one day I'd give it to her, but not that day. I shifted my foot, planting it on the back of her head, pushing her face down into the dirt. "I'm in charge of this kingdom, now," I said, and she nodded as best she could.

"Darli~ing!" Came a very loud voice, which for a moment I thought was Meslya. When I twisted my head around to catch who it was, though, I recognized her.

It was Argana.

Wearing a pastel-colored floral dress with dipping cleavage, not that different from Meslya's own (though, given she had larger breasts, she filled it out a bit more).

With her hair done back in a tight bun similar to Meslya's, instead of left long in that trailing braid-ponytail thing she'd had last I saw her.

She just glommed onto the first of my bodies she got to, hugging it tight. Luckily, it wasn't the body with its foot on the back of Kali's head. "Darli~ing, I want to be your happy little Stepfordized housewife!" My cock twitched against her stomach, and she cooed. "Ooh, does darling want to get started on breeding me already? My name is Argana, by the way!"

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