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I looked at the sword, still embedded in the castle's solid stone masonry.

The blade glared at me.

It was a strange, eerie sensation, considering that despite its considerable and mysterious presence, it wasn't all that different from the other long swords used by the natives. I'd seen quite a few of them already. This one may have had an ornate handle, assumed to be a show of either wealth or rank, but otherwise, it seemed otherwise quite ordinary. Except that presence, an unsettling sting, which was hinting this was more than a mere inanimate object. Or was it?

I took a hesitant step towards it.

"For Master!" protested the 'Displacer' that caught me and still clung to my waist. It wasn't one of those I'd named - those had received the fruit which triggered their mutation to a more distinctive form - but the ordinary, smaller version,

She was the one that dragged me here through her rift, not only saving me, but likely deflected the magical sword out of its trajectory by dragging it through the spatial anomaly with us.

I glanced at her, then at the sword, and considered the risks.

The flying blade - one that worked more like a homing missile rather than a simple thrown object - was something akin to an out of context problem. It was more than an arrow, fired from a bow or crossbow, or even the magic the local priestesses were blessed with, or the supernatural fighting prowess of the 'elites'.

The perfect attack, or close to it.

One I didn't see coming.

Though it appeared inert right now, a simple blade stuck in the stone, there was no way of telling what would activate it.

The proximity? An incantation? A force of will? Would it move again?

"For! Master!" The little displacer insisted, unwilling to risk it again, ready to pull me through the void once again in the split second either I or the weapon made any sudden moves. I could sense her anxiousness, and the voices at the back of my head were slowly coalescing into a storm.

I patted the feline on her head.

"I am not going to risk it then."

"I will try, Master." Helmy appeared from the crowd. I forgot she had joined this excursion, even though our recent detour to have technically put her in charge of the castle, and thus was expected to show up.

"I am going to take this sword and keep gutting every human I come across until it understands no one touches our Master! Ever!" she mused aloud, and I was unsure whether she was attempting to threaten the sword which as far I knew didn't have a mind of its own, or was simply talking to herself.

It was Helmy. She was a peculiar girl even among the pyromaniac madness of the 'Purifiers'.

She was about to touch the sword.

I was suddenly overcome with a chilling sensation, either a premonition of sorts, or maybe even a simple worry.

Perhaps the stone it pierced was the only thing that prevented it from moving, and could follow me like the curse once someone, or something, pulled it out.

"No. Helmy, wait. We need to get rid of it." I declared, feeling uncomfortable, "Destroy it."

She froze. Destroying it, however, would not be easy, unless I threw it in the furnace, and to do that, I would have to free it from the stone.

"Someone, absorb it, perhaps." I thought aloud.

Absorbing the magical blade was quite a deceptively simple task. After all, I was in the courtyard, currently filled with about two dozen members of my furry menagerie, uniquely gifted to do exactly that. I wasn't in shortage of volunteers ready to step in and get rid of this threat.

"For Master!"

One of the fresh 'Ravagers' stepped forward without a moment of hesitation, and grabbed the sword with one hand, then the other.

It was only when the hands of my bear lady touched the sword when I realised, or rather remembered, the enchanted stave, which practically led to Ekaterina self-sealing herself, and quickly reconsidered.

"Wait..." I uttered, but the deed was already done.

The ursine grabbed the weapon, and the metal melted in her touch practically instantly, turning into a liquid that seeped into the monster girl's fur, skin and body.

This time, however, nothing cataclysmic had happened. In fact, the weapon simply disappeared, absorbed within the 'Ravager' body and the system answered by the simple, dull notification almost as if nothing was amiss.

|

Unit evolved! Unnamed Obliterator.

|

"For Master!" reported the bear-girl, unconcerned, unbothered, replying to my concern. It did not hurt her.

Even though she had just absorbed the flying sword that cut through possibly dozens of my monster girls, and was emitting quite a menacing aura in itself, it would seem that nothing substantial had changed.

The upgrading, or 'evolving' as the system put it, gave my anthropomorphic bear a more defined figure, complete with more defined muscles under her fur, like it was some magical work-out routine, but that seemed to be all what there was to it. Considering all 'Ravagers' were, by nature, tall and with full, muscular bodies, it made a negligible difference.

Even the small versions of 'Ravager' in their original form were towering over me, that hardly mattered. Their physical strength was already quite impressive, not to mention the generous body proportions all of her breed possessed.

As much as I was glad we survived the danger unscathed, the lack of tangible results was also decidedly disappointing.

Without the deadly fight that yielded the armour that made Kuma stronger, I wouldn't know enchanted items existed in this world.

Without the stave, captured from the priestess we killed, some of those very items were trapped, sanctified perhaps, perhaps imbued with that very spell that 'sealed' my girls.

Now, there was this sword, and it followed its own set of rules.

An idea that she might have inherited some of the enchanted sword's power crossed my mind. Kuma was, after all, quite hardy, and Ekaterina could supposedly resist the sealing magic, so it stood to reason that some attributes would carry over.

Enchantments were idiosyncratic, I guessed, so the powers were as unique to the piece as were the dangers.

Maybe there was even a reason the system dubbed them 'Obliterators' other than simply sound menacing. I didn't know, but perhaps their true strength had laid in becoming the weapon the enemy had brandished against us?

It was quiet for a few seconds, which the unnamed girl used to flex her power, materialising a sword of her own, but she apparently couldn't make it fly. Her blade cluttered against the cobblestone, just as if it was an ordinary piece of metal.

This time, Helmy picked it, and though the vixen had difficulty wielding the weapon a freshly created item didn't seem to have any extraordinary qualities on its own.

Helmy lifted the weapon above her head, and lit it on fire with her own pyromancy, creating a brief burst of flame that shot towards the sky.

She giggled.

I bobbed my head at the demonstration, though it seems to be that the original properties of the sword, if it had any, had disappeared.

When the flames subsided, the 'Purifier' handed the blade back to the bear girl, who absorbed the metal once more and tried to utilise it to create a covering for herself for a change.

The improvement in fine control, provided by the evolution, was noticeable as she could form a chain-mail patch against her own fur, even though it was abundantly clear that she was limited by the amount of material. Our abilities may break the laws of physics, but matter, specifically metal, ex nihilo, wasn't an option.

The bear girl wasn't bothered because she remained practically naked and lightly spun to show off her chain-mail bikini-top once she noticed my gaze.

My mind was, nevertheless, preoccupied with something else - the power, not the girl in titillating armour which supported her very muscular chest.

Forming a collection of small, interlocked metal rings with just a thought was quite impressive, especially when combined with instantaneous proficiency, and ability to absorb metal by any part of the body, but it was more than likely nothing compared to the power that the blade once held.

The bear lady wouldn't soar through the sky anytime soon.

Although, it made me think: Was flight something imbued into the weapon itself, or was it rather a power held by its wielder channelled through the sword as some form of focus, or medium?

It had a magic - I had felt it before, after all - but was that magic flight a property of the sword, or was it simply a conduit for power held elsewhere?

I didn't know, and I wasn't any close to understanding how magic in this world worked, and what I should expect in our next encounter.

"Could you ..." I asked, wondering whether I should name the brave bear-girl, "Could you make a sword, or wand, for Helmy?"

Perhaps it was conductive, and I could not reproduce the feats of the previous wielder.

I was interrupted before my resident pyromaniac received her a new toy.

A new portal had torn apart the air, with Miwah and Tama appearing out of it, this time without the 'Displacer' carrying them through, as the more grown version not only had a much better physique, but also even less restriction on how to use their abilities. They were all out there, and most of them were alive.

I looked at Miwah.

While she was unharmed, her body must have reformed the moments before I was dragged through the rift to safety. It also dawned on me how often she had put herself in harm's way in order to protect me, and I was suddenly filled with the unbearable fear that next time, next time some unseen counter would count to zero and I would lose my beloved pale white werewolf forever.

Was there a last death for them, or would they indeed continue to reform endlessly?

A relief mixed with unrealized fear.

Miwah welcomed me in a warm embrace, filled with more concern for me than she had for herself. A little 'Displacer' that had pestered me decided she wanted in too, and so it did Tama. None of them seem to be bothered by any of the others.

I was about to say something, but I found some wordless assurance in the invisible bond between us, and the rest of our host, that encroached on my mind with every passing moment - perhaps, we were indeed together forever, all the minds joined as one.

"I will always, always be on your side, Master." the wolf-girl whispered, which brought further assurance to my doubting mind.

There was, however, no more time to consider the connection, or our relationship, as a reminder of the whole endless cycle of violence reared its head once more, and it seemed we would never have any chance to settle down until the humans in the area were somehow completely pacified.

There were so many problems I would have to solve.

Another rift, this time with Ekaterina and Kuma, emerged from the portal, and her smaller sisters let them pass. Their armour and their bodies were sprayed with traces of blood from the recent battle.

I couldn't afford to be crippled by the fear of losing one of my girls now. I needed to figure out how to fight the next wave of enemies, should they appear, or how to handle the ticking bomb left back in the village where we so unceremoniously housed the dragoness' rescued clergy.

The 'Lady' didn't seem to pay attention to us presently. Although she would be a wealth of information in her own right, I mentally rejected the option to invoke her name. After all, she could keep pestering me about the 'cult' she wanted, one I neither desired nor needed.

"Enemies were dealt with, Master." They said rather unceremoniously and sounded even a little bored. Neither of them seemed bothered, either, and only refrained from joining the group hug because they were in dire need of a bath, or at least, some cleaning.

"What about the one with the flying sword?" I asked, glancing at the freshly 'evolved' ursine girl: "The power wasn't in the sword. Or we don't inherit the abilities of the enchanted items."

"I think we killed him, Master." Kuma said, looking at Ekaterina.

"There were a few stronger than others..." said the second, looking at her sister.

"...braver than others, too, but didn't put up much of a fight, Master." Kuma finished the sentence with her typical yawn. "Fleshspeakers caught the others."

"More magic swords?" It was an obvious question..

"No, Master."

While my monster girls were fearless, owing to their peculiar resurrection-based immortality combined with complete confidence, I considered it strange that the duo could win the fight against several superpowered fighters alone with little effort.

As strong as my ursine followers were, they didn't prove to be a hard counter against the best 'elites' the humans could offer.

Or was the transition between 'Ravager' to 'Obliterator' so game changing, more than a more menacing name associated with their respective breed or the slightly improved appearance?

Perhaps the whole 'evolution' was such a fundamental improvement in their relative power that justified the concept of 'resources' where there were none previously.

Testing those, however, would mean looking for a fight.

"Are you sure it was the last of them?"

They paused, and I could sense they were querying the host, as they apparently didn't have the answer for the motives and abilities of our enemy.

I was, however, not keen on the prospect of being targeted by another flying sword, even if right now I was more afraid of losing Miwah, or any of my girls, than about my own well-being.

"If Arke caught the survivors, then ask her to rip the answer from their minds. She could do it with language, so she might extract other information too."

The cruelty of my idea shocked me, but my monster girls nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes, Master!"

I looked around, refusing to think of all of my gorgeous bear girls as cannon-fodder only because they couldn't lay their hand on some magical sword, armour or stave. Still, there were only so many that could be 'evolved' - and I already hated the term.

The fresh one still toyed with her power to pass the time, while the others looked positively bored. Some decided to hunch down and literally doze off on their feet, while others wandered off. I even caught one carrying a 'Purifier' on her shoulders. They were not worried.

Helmy got her sword, too. She flickered the flames on and off before I asked, giving some credit to the idea of conductivity, yet I wasn't in a position to test the theory to any meaningful degree. In fact, I needed to equip all of my 'Ravagers' first. Some of them, like Kuma and Ekaterina, went straight up to the full-plated armour, but it quickly proved to be far too resource intensive. At least, with restrictions of a few days and a single mining shaft.

Which meant I needed to acquire from elsewhere the materials which were in dire shortage .

"Hey, little one, do you know if there are other mines in the area where humans get their metal?" I asked the small 'Displacer' that still clung to me, refusing to let go even if there wasn't any new flying sword coming.

"For Master!" she confirmed, albeit tentatively. It seemed this feline was hell-bent on clinging to me in case of another attack, so she could drag me away through her rift to safety, even if there wasn't an immediate reason for it.

"I want to...." I started my suggestion, partly to create a task for her to do, then stopped, as I immediately realised that our attempt to raid mines other than the one we already controlled would just be considered a provocation from our side.

I paused.

Sora was already tasked with preparing some maps of the area since we could get our claws from the paper and ink, and it was about time to see the results.

"No. Belay that. You don't have to go anywhere. I just want to make sure we have a map of the area now, and if I have a chance, I might ask for permission or trade later." I said, recalling I would have to negotiate with the Viceroy should he survive - and I could ask for payment in iron.

This could, and should, be done tomorrow.

"For Master!" She agreed, but didn't rush away - the little 'Displacer' had promoted herself to my personal transport, or rather, teleporter, while her sisters would focus on the other tasks.

Although I was amazed that I could comprehend the meaning behind the same two words now, I made a mental remark that I should talk to Sora about her tendency to delegate the task to her smaller kin. She seemed to be the only 'Alpha' that didn't want to stick around, even though it may be because my inner circle had swelled substantially.

I looked around.

"Do we know what was up with that human group?"

"Yes, Master. Arke said they were already fleeing from us when we encountered them." Tama provided the answer, abusing the telepathic link even though I would prefer to hear the answer for the bat-girl herself. There was a time for it later, instantaneous communication had its benefits, one we should use.

"Fleeing to where?" I asked,

"The army." She said, "They were to reach it, in a week"

I was not entirely sure whether it was good or bad news.

Attacking them may be an option, but the memory of the flying, enchanted, sword - an out of context problem I randomly deflected - made any rash decision a very risky prospect.

There was no way of telling whether we killed only 'elite' capable of the feat, or whether it was something all 'elites' eventually learned to do.

I would be less than thrilled to encounter yet another innately opposed faction. Even if a new faction wasn't inherently opposed to us, that doesn't equate to an ally; they could still turn hostile later. I needed a better approach than the perpetual death of hundreds in the name of my protection.

Although my weakness might make some of it inevitable, that wouldn't mean I'd accept relegating my monsters, my girls, my people into the degrading role of a meat buffer.

My precious girls may respawn, but they were not expendable.

Perhaps a more defensive tactic was in order, a cautious approach, less reliant on horde tactics. A preparation, a trap, which would force the enemy to reveal their hidden powers. I wasn't sure exactly how to make a trap yet.

"We need to fortify the ..." I started, then paused, realising how deficient my naming scheme was: "the place where we hold the dragoness' former priesthood. We need to keep them because we want to keep enemies out..."

I was certain I was going to get an affirmative answer for that, but the realisation that I couldn't reliably be a prison for a hundred people, give or take, plus the villagers that might come back accounting for the range the barrier - which was a known spell by that point - could have.

Sadly, I can't just build a wall.

The palisade within the palisade would be enormous - a deforestation required for such undertaking would be even less attainable than that.

"Wait..." I said, recalling the conversation we had earlier: "There are relay stations here."

"Yes, this group was camping in one." Miwah turned her turn in answering, as I scanned the restless crowd itching to set out for the new orders, unconcerned with the dangers it may pose to them.

"We will start our fort there." I decided, "As a spot for our girls to live in. The rest of the forest around the village - let's call it The Pen for now - needs to be turned as impassable by the corruptors as they would manage."

"Yes, Master."

I once again scanned the surroundings.

"Kuma. Ekaterina. Could you take care of managing your sisters here?" I said. Their numbers had grown once again, and considering each of them required their own pile of metal to work with, it put a strain on what we could mine - and we needed them. They were my main fighters, after all.

"Those without a metal to outfit themselves decently are out of fighting duty unless there is an emergency. The rest is to help with building shelters and walls and so on." I decided, "I will have to figure out a faster way to mine for metal in the meantime. Just recycle some weapons from the encounter for tools."

"Yes, Master."

An obvious solution would be to raid, abusing our portals, directed towards the places where the natives had obtained most of their iron, or where they made their steel, manufactured their weapons, or armour. I had to remind myself that this country was at war - the amount of armour, swords, spears and other equipment any sizeable army needed was substantial.

Some blacksmith in some forgotten village couldn't simply make a thousand swords alone.

This required organisation - and we had to find it, but as I have decided before, I would have to refrain from further aggressive actions before I would have a chance to speak with someone in charge. If we were asked to defend a valley, the writ for goods, or authority, was in order, and would provide a thin veneer of legitimacy.

"Helmy." I said, "You are in charge of this fortress, just as Brave does with the mountain pass..."

The vixen perked up.

"A group of the Fleshspeakers have to watch over the village with all those abandoned priests. You take care of the west flank. Brave takes the east pass as a fall back location for us."

"Yes, Master!" The 'Alpha' fox agreed, and her eyes immediately gazed somewhere on the horizon, suggesting that she consulted her telepathic link between her and the rest of the host, to which many of the 'Purifiers' lurking within the castle walls reacted with spontaneous giggling and chants. I almost forgot that this place was a place where hundreds of 'Purifiers' lurked around, on the walls, or just behind the hulking figures of 'Ravagers'.

I looked at Tama, who also pressed herself close to me.

"Protector of the Western Mark?" she offered, and then said in her more sultry tone: "Helmy takes some responsibilities while I entertain some... other needs."

At this point, I wasn't quite certain where the whole idea of 'Protector' came from, it was something I said earlier I was sure, but it didn't matter right now.

"Perhaps." I shrugged, and once again looked around. There was a certain level of safety, or assurance, in the furry menagerie that found their home in the fortress, but their presence was also somewhat distracting in their own right.

Right now, I desire some peace and quiet to collect my thoughts.

"Take me to Mai's grove." I decided, "Ask Mai to come. And Narita and Arke too."

It was a tranquil place, deep within our territory, and the place where I decided to place a unique item of our own - or rather, a plant, a tree which produced those glowing magical fruits that fuelled all the 'evolutions' as the system called them.

I was pulled through the portal practically immediately, a boon, or perhaps a curse of having a clingy 'Displacer' that would attach herself to me and then transport me on the whim.

Luckily for me, the disorienting nature of the strange void beyond was becoming less and less confusing with each time it was used, and when I appeared in the garden of otherworldly blooms Mai had created, I didn't feel dizzy at all.

Kirke and her 'Mutator' smaller kin, along with a few of their 'Corruptor' cousins, were currently resting and sharing a meal sitting in the centre of the grove in the courtyard. Anthropomorphic moths and reptiles seem to get along just fine, even if they make slightly messy eaters. As I found out, the blood-like fruit I've also tasted before seems to be a universal staple food for both.

I decided to not disturb them.

I waved out at Kirke. They had a right to be exhausted as much as I was, not to mention I had to plan how to employ the arcane 'evolution' produce right now, especially so if they were of limited supply.

I sat on that improvised bench, a couch of sorts, even if made of interwoven branches bent over to support the weight of my body. It was more comfortable than it had any right to be, and the clingy 'Displacer' - one that refused to leave - simply decided to rest on my lap. Her fluffy, feline body is soothingly warm and soft.

The exhaustion from the long day was, however, considerably harder to ignore as I closed my eyes and drifted off for a quick nap.

My dreams came quickly. Surprisingly enough, they were not centred about the flying sword, but my old, half-forgotten home, and disgusting red blade-legged spiders that chased me around wherever I went.

When I woke up with a fright, in the safe embrace of not only the insistent little 'Displacer' but also Miwah and Tama, I was staring into the face of Arke leaning over me.

"Master?" she asked. Her eyes flashed as her ears flinched.

Suddenly, I was struck by a wave of inspiration.

I didn't quite understand how there could be a flying sword, capable of homing to the target as if it was a missile, and I couldn't comprehend the power that allowed it to work. It was magic, yes, but it wasn't one we could replicate. However, why should I play by the humans' rules?

Maybe I should play by the ones my 'Fleshspeakers' did.