"I suppose that explains the intensity of your arrival," muttered the dragon, insofar as anything that came out of a creature that size could be described as a mutter. "But how? You should not yet possess that knowledge. You destroyed the humans' summoning circle. They have no method by which to attempt to send you home, nor have you shown any talent in soul magic, or magic of any other form."

In reply, I stuck out an arm in a direction that didn't quite fit in the usual three spatial dimensions, causing reality to ripple, much as the surface of water would if someone tossed in a stone. Ripples which twisted light and darkness as they passed, whispering something on the very cusp of hearing.

The green dragon back-peddled from the hole in reality. "You madwoman!" he roared. "Close it!"

I did, because as angry as I was, I'd had a glimpse once before of what lived on the other side. Or, more accurately, what existed there. Whether it was conventional life or not, inviting it to this world would be worse than introducing the blight.

"Does that answer your question? I can teleport myself, no help required. I was intending to pop back home for a quick visit before coming back here to check everyone was sticking to the terms of the truce. So imagine my surprise and displeasure when I found out that doing so would erase an entire race!"

The dragon snorted, causing a small avalanche of gold. "Good. That was my intent. That's an aspect of your blessing I hadn't seen, but it changes nothing. Since I couldn't harm you directly, forcing you to choose between your home and your adopted pets seemed like the cruellest revenge I could take. You're welcome to hate me in return, but know that should you succeed in killing me, not only will your grip on your pets not be released, but all demons under my control have orders to start attacking humans indiscriminately."

I stared at the dragon, but what could I do? He had me over a barrel. He'd practically taken the entire planet hostage against me. I couldn't get him to undo it by force. Heck, if he was telling the truth about their nature, it couldn't be undone, only shifted. Could I find someone else to foist them onto? Not only would I have to have absolute trust in whoever I chose, but I'd also need a sufficiently skilled soul mage to move the link.

Would I be willing to spend the rest of my life here, never returning home, just to protect a bunch of people I'd barely met, and only felt any obligation to because of another group that happened to share their faces?

What other options were there? The soul link required me to be in the same universe as them, but there was nothing saying it had to be this universe. I could move the entire civilization back to Earth. Or perhaps I could make a permanent portal, something for the soul bond to work through?

There were possibilities, but I needed my final pair of levels to see what new skills I could get. While I could use the innate Void manipulation ability granted by my class to open a hole large enough for others, it wouldn't be safe for travel. I'd need new skills for any option.

Or I suppose there was one other thing I could try. There was another Katie once. A Katie terrified of fighting, kidnapped from her bed, lost and afraid. A Katie who wasn't immune to pain, who wasn't detached from her own fear. Someone without unnatural strength and power, with skin instead of scales, blue eyes instead of yellow. She couldn't turn to might or magic to solve her problems, so what would she do here?

Easy. There would be nothing she could do but beg. As much as I didn't want to give the dragon the satisfaction, it was worth the try to simply ask politely. "Please. All I want is to save as many people as possible, without caring about species, social status, gender or anything. I don't value one over the other."

The dragon responded to my heartfelt plea with nothing more than a sneer. "Nonsense. You value only those before you. Those whose names you know. Among the vulpes sagax, there are those still fighting and dying on the front lines. You could have recalled them; you have that right now. Or you could have visited the front lines yourself, now that you have clear knowledge of which humans are the enemies of peace. Yet you haven't even mentioned them. Have they even crossed your mind?"

...I realised with horror that they hadn't. I'd thought only of the one town I'd visited, and no others. How many more candles would be lit in the temple that I could have prevented by fighting alongside them? But that in itself was naïve; I knew nothing about warfare. If I tried to interfere, could I really save anyone? I'd be just as likely to spread chaos and confusion as to bring the fighting to a quicker and less bloody close.

"Then you intend to keep me here forever, holding an entire species hostage against me."

"Exactly."

I bit down the urge to be vindictive and explosively self-destruct myself there and then to blow his hoard up. Giving him further reason to hate me wouldn't buy me anything, and I didn't need his veiled threats to know that he could make my stay here far more unpleasant than it currently was. Better to leave in peace and seek out more levels.

"For what it's worth, I am sorry for your brother, but even now, faced with the same circumstances, I would do exactly the same thing."

The dragon narrowed his eyes, but said nothing, so I took my leave, flying back up the extended corridor. I still had my other ideas and wasn't about to despair just yet. I needed to find two more shrines.

But first, I stood in my tunnel, right in the middle of the barrier that was attempting to expel me. I needed more protection from that dragon, and if his defensive shield was going to level up my resistance to a pair of the most insidious types of magic in existence, I was going to make the most of it.

Mind magic immunity advanced to level 36
Soul magic nullification advanced to level 23
Soul magic nullification advanced to level 24
Mind magic immunity advanced to level 37
Soul magic nullification advanced to level 25

The pressure on my mind and soul abruptly vanished. Did the dragon just switch off the barrier to prevent me from levelling up any further? I walked back and forth a few times, to no effect. Drat, I'd been hoping to max out both skills.

"Spoilsport!" I shouted back down the tunnel.

Fine then. It was time to find new statues. Wasting yet more hours, I flew back in the direction of the conflict. Alas, while there were signs of battle, burnt fields and abandoned settlements, I failed to find any further villages. Where was I supposed to find more statues? Should I go back to the fox-kin town and ask? Find another demon town?

Dru'niryeal had told me that the red dragon knew all the fox-kin knew, and had been surprised when I'd asked her about shrines. Perhaps that surprise hadn't been at the question itself, but at the fact I was asking it in person. I might as well make use of the tools I'd been given. How did I access the combined knowledge of the fox-kin?

I didn't want to. If I started making use of my control over them, I could see myself easily fall down a slippery slope. It would start with searching for answers I needed, but if I could easily do that, I'd soon move onto things I was merely curious about. Then perhaps I'd find some of the fluffiest tails to floof, and before I knew it, I'd be running a harem of fluff.

Okay... So it was a bit of a jump to go from searching for shrines to running a fox-kin harem, but this was me I was talking about. I couldn't completely deny the possibility.

Regardless of the risk of falling into a pit of depravity, I sat myself down in a grassy field, closed my eyes and concentrated. I had no idea what I was looking for, but I felt that searching in mid-air would likely result in a crash. There was... something. I opened my eyes again, and did something I'd managed not to do for a while, painting the meadow in the colour of vomit.

I could see too much. I was simultaneously looking out of the eyes of every living fox-kin. The fox-kin town was visible from a thousand different angles, as were a few more settlements of similar size and a sprinkling of smaller villages. I saw a fierce battle, a human soldier charging straight at me, sword held out at shoulder height. Another sword moved in the bottom of my vision, held in a hand that wasn't mine. It stabbed the human soldier through the heart, just as the tip of the human sword passed beneath the field of vision.

That part of my sight went black, sending me into a fit of dry heaving.

What had the demon lord said? The red dragon had ordered them to win in the most expedient manner possible, regardless of the cost of life. I'd just seen an example of that in action. And I could see more; the fight was still ongoing. That was... wrong. Coming back home alive was more important than a rapid victory. There were no time constraints on the demon side, so why throw away lives to buy a few hours?

The demon lord had said I could withdraw them from the fight completely, but that wouldn't be fair. I could see the many limbed blobs in the fight, along with things I'd seen in the abyss, and other monsters I hadn't seen before. The fox-kin fleeing would weaken their side. It would cause more deaths.

There was no way the fox-kin heard my thoughts, and I hadn't given any explicit instructions anyway, but their behaviour immediately changed regardless. I saw another sword approaching another viewpoint, but instead of a mutual death, this time the view shifted, implying the fox-kin had dodged. I saw a sword swing, but the delayed counterattack gave the human time to dodge too, and he took only a shallow scratch. The wound still slowed him, though, and I saw the fox-kin's sword swing again, this time cutting deeply into the human's sword arm. He didn't last much longer after that. Better, but still horrific; another two fields of vision blinked out as I watched.

I fought down the urge to fly there and join in the fight. It wasn't my battle. Instead, I focused on my connection and what I needed to know. I found what I was looking for, but rather than celebrating, I was sent into another fit of dry heaving, my stomach long since emptied.

My answer had not come from the fox-kin town, or one of the villages. Not from a refugee or even from the soldiers locked in combat. It had come from the human territory. I looked through a pair of downcast eyes, staring at the floor. I could hear the voices in front of her. The owners of those voices weren't in her field of vision, but they didn't need to be; I recognised one as angry noble B.

"Of course we can't, but we can hold them off for long enough to strip this place and transport everything of value to a town near the capital. We'll move there incognito and pretend to be rich merchants or something."

I felt the stinging pain of her back, where she had been whipped not an hour before. The cold, heavy, metal collar around her neck, that was preventing her from taking any action against that man, despite her utter hatred of him.

Her vision snapped up as my own anger overrode the collar, showing a familiar balding head rising up over the back of an ostentatiously decorated chair. There was a fireplace to her right, a poker in its stand next to it. A sharp poker. I watched on as she silently picked it up, as if I were spectating a movie. She took three steps towards the chair.

"Hey! What are you..." shouted someone else in the room as he saw her movement, but it was too late for angry noble B to react. With strength I hadn't expected, the poker slid through the noble's spine, emerging from his throat.

From the fox-kin, I felt a mix of satisfaction and fear. Fear that was justified. A sword sliced through her chest, and she fell to the floor before my link cut out. Again, just like the battle, I hadn't tried to control her. I had a thought, and she responded.

Why had the red dragon never done that? Life for a life seemed like his modus operandi, and he had assassins placed perfectly to take out the complicit nobles. Perhaps he couldn't. I couldn't imagine my control being stronger than his, but the grand barrier may have weakened it? Or maybe he wanted the war for some reason. Killing the slavers could have prevented it, and I already knew he was perfectly willing to use the fox-kin as tools to get what he wanted.

Regardless, I'd found what I'd been looking for. I cut off the constant feed of senses and thoughts that weren't my own, struggling a little to do so now that I'd opened the gates, and made my way to the dead slave's former village. Hidden in a forest, this one hadn't been burnt, but merely ransacked. It was, in fact, still occupied.

"I really wish you people wouldn't kneel," I muttered at the kneeling group of elderly fox-kin, as if I could still pretend to be their equal after sending a woman from this village to her death with nothing more than a stray thought.

And to think it was accidentally making a harem I was worried about.