After I make my silent promise to find Ava in Raphlesia, I wait for a while for my emotions to cool down and I stand up, taking the key. I walk up to the door to the house - to my home I'll most likely be seeing for one last time - and I turn the key in the door slowly.

I open the door to the silent, dark insides, as there seems to be no light from the Chaos powered lamps, even after I flick the switch. It's probably that the ambient Chaos during the Storm caused something to malfunction. Though it's not like I have much problems with the darkness, because I have already noticed my eyes are much better than they were, and that extends to seeing in the dark.

Though my ears still don't work, so it's completely silent as well, but it's not like there will be many sounds to hear in an abandoned city.

The first thing I do is to walk upstairs to the bathroom through the almost untouched corridors and stairs. They are in such state that if I didn't know better, I would think the residents of the house were just absent for a long while. As for me, I'm filthy right now, and while it doesn't bother me very much because of my current sitation, it's better to fix that now when I can.

So I grab a new Chaos stone from the cupboard and swap the old one with it, and get into the shower. I take off all the rags on me that were clothes before and I don't think I need to describe their current sorry state, and throw them to the side.

I turn the shower on and start scrubbing myself, finally getting a good look at my body. First of all, my whole body seems to be softer and a bit less defined, which isn't something I exactly like, but it isn't anything bad, especially if I get the superhuman strength from being a Chaos Touched. My six pack, for example, isn't missing, but is now barely visible as a sort of headland from my midriff, and the muscles of my arms are softer. My legs are a different matter, because their shape seems to have shifted a bit, even ignoring my feet.

I don't have anything to compare, but I'm pretty sure that the bone and muscle structure of my legs has been changed quite a lot, mainly in relation to my feet. Certain muscles of mine seem to have grown a bit even, while some have shrunk considerably apart from softening. The former being mainly my thighs and, uh, front upper leg muscles, forgot how they're called, and the latter mainly my calves. Both not by large degree, but noticable if I inspect them closely.

My skin also isn't as tanned as it was before, being a uniform pale even around my private parts, which got a tiny bit more shapely and round. It's also not a difference you can see at first glance, and actually the next largest change to my body, apart from Demi characteristics obviously, is my hair and not my curves.

My hair got much firmer, thicker, and stronger, and it got a yellow tinge to its vibrant green from before. If you add my new ears, I'll probably need to change my hairstyle. Hm. I'll leave it free for now, and we'll see later.

I finish the shower rather quickly with my tail, which I take care to carefully clean of all the dust that got into it. And I learn why a wet fox is an unhappy fox, because my tail gets like five times heavier than it was before when I leave the shower, leaving a trail of water under my sad drooping tail. I quickly decide I need to do something about it and take two towels on my way back to the shower. Then I squeeze like ten liters of water out of my tail with my hands, and then I use the towel to dry it further, only earning myself two wet towels without much effect on my tail.

But it's at least not dripping water, so that's a success. I go for the hairdryer, leaving the towels in the bin on the way, put another new Chaos stone in it, and get to drying my hair, which takes a lot longer than usual, if only because of my ears.

Along the way I get a good look at them in the mirror, and sure enough, they are massive. They are like... if you add their area looking from my front, you get the area of my face. Yeah, more or less.

They also have large whitish tufts of fur inside them and a quick check makes me aware that they have much wider range of movement than I initially assumed. I can fold them forward, backward, rotate them around my head a hundred and eighty degrees each, point them up and fold them to the sides. And all of it is as easy and natural as moving my arms. Fascinating.

When I'm done with my hair, I sit down and get to drying my tail, which a bit surreal experience. And a one long experience, I have to say, because it takes me more time than drying my hair. Then I get to brushing it all, which takes almost as much time.

But the result is well damn worth, because I end up with a long, wide, floofy tail that my hands seem to sink in when I touch it and envelop me when I hug it and bury my face inside. And I love this feeling! It's much better than any pillow I ever had. Soft, floofy, mine. And Ava has seven of those! Can you imagine the bliss when I finally get to sleep in her tails?

I giggle goofily at the thought and get up with a small sigh, remembering it's still a while till I can do that. I head to our bedroom directly afterwards, and rummage through the wardrobe in search for appropriate clothes.

I whip up some panties and a sports bra, but pause on socks with a black pair halfway out of the drawer. Hm. I can't really wear any socks now. Boots as well, and on that matter, I wonder where my previous pair went. Not like it matters now.

I quickly put the undies on, fumbling a bit with my tail and quickly realizing that pants are not a viable solution with it protruding above my butt. I finally settle on some waist-high underpants I cut a long hole in with my nails, that I only now notice are much sharper than earlier, and put my tail through. It's a bit funny that my tail is a foot wide, but can easily fit in a hole five inches long.

Anyway, having this done, I pull out a black shirt and short, black, ruffled skirt. Then after a moment I cover the former with yellow blouse. Yup, Ava would be proud of me now. I managed to pick clothes for myself after my hair changed colors, and believe me when I say that nobles can be real asses in terms of matching clothes to your hair. Ava, as a minor noble as well, doesn't have this habit to criticise people's clothes, but still has that strange sense of what looks good with what hair.

With such thoughts I finish dressing myself, leaving my feet bare since I have no idea what to do with them, and commit a criminal offense by taking one of Ava's handbags. A black one, one of the smaller. I'm not planning on taking a backpack, if only because we don't have one in the house, and I need to fit some money and other things on my person.

Pockets aren't a good idea for that, even not considering the amount of things I'll be bringing, because I'll probably tear those clothes sooner or later.

So, having that done, I go to the hidden safe in the wall and open it with a code set to my confession date. I look inside and take out all that remained, I assume left for me by Ava, which is a few tens of gold coins and one check for the bank worth ten times more than those coins. A hell lot of money and much more than I need, but I'm not going to leave it here.

I close the safe and give last fond look the room where we started that fateful morning, and with a single tear swirling in my eye I turn around and walk out, then down to the kitchen.

I am on the way to the cooler when it finally hits me that I'm not hungry. At all. And considering that I have slept for at least whole day, this is a pretty damn important change. It can mean only one thing. That I get enegy to function from different source than eating food. The problem is that I have no damn idea what it is, and any sort of instincts don't seem to be telling me that now.

Hm, let's at least check if I can eat food, because in many cases, especially among Demi, you can go on two types of sustenance. I open the cooler and take out a random piece of cheese, then try to sniff it before realizing I won't smell anything since my nose isn't working. Hm.

I use my claw to cut out a small piece and bring it to mouth, biting it experimentally.

"Pffft!" I immediately spit it out with disgust, grimacing at the absolutely horrid taste, like something was trying to twist each of my tastebuds individually. Blergh, eeew, disgusting. Well, shit. Seems I won't be eating food anytime soon, unless this is a temporary condition, which I doubt. That also means I won't be taking any food with me.

I hop for a mop and clean the floor, midway wiping my tongue with my fingers as the disguting taste still lingers on my tongue. Hm, with that done... what do I still have to do before searching for Ava?

I am standing in the kitchen for a long while, trying to recall if there is anything I should do, befere a sudden pop in my left ear sends me jumping backwards onto all fours in alarm before I realize I just heard something. Not a second later there is another pop in my right ear and it hits me that I just got my hearing back.

I slowly stand up and my ears whirl down as I hear a soft sound of fabric brushing against fabric and skin, and I realize those are my clothes rubbing against each other. Wow, damn. I freeze in place, suddenly very interested if I can hear anything, and I very quickly hear two things. Quiet, pained whimpers somewhere below me, and loud, continuous noise made most likely by a Chaos engine. So the army, most likely.

There are also some more sounds, most likely coming from more Beasts, but I quickly filter them out, judging them to be unimportant. Instead I focus on the one coming from below me, likely from the basement, which sounds like quiet whimpering and scraping.

That's Maria or Vera, isn't it? I realize and rush down the stairs as quietly as I can, which still isn't quiet at all to my new ears, and thinking of the sounds I make I realize I don't hear my hearbeat and almost fall down the stairs to the basement. I mean, what? I can't be dead, because I'd notice. I just... don't have a heart, maybe? Hm.

Shit, later. Let's go down to the basement. I continue down the stairs and when I reach their bottom, I quietly open the door, already hearing the whimpers very distinctly. I also hear the sound of... claws scraping on concrete, most likely, and something wet, though I can't tell what.

Then I open the door and what comes into my sight sends me to all fours in alarm. A large... Canine, I think, type 4 or 5, currently crushed under the remains of a wall and bloodied all over.

Just as I open the door, it slowly turns its head to me and lets out a loud, pained whimper before barking at me loudly, which sounds like a bomb going off in my sensitive ears and makes me pull them back with a grimace. I try to adjust to the sound as it continues barking and, surprisingly, it takes effect, with the sound remaining awfully loud in the small room, but bearable.

I stand up slowly and walk up to the Beast as it continues pawing on the ground. That's Vera or Maria, isn't it?

I dash forward and catch the Beast's jaws in my hands, surprising myself with the ease I can do that, and press the mouth shut so it will stop barking.

"Hey! Maria! Vera!" I shout, but the Beast only starts waving its unhurt front paw faster and more deperately, trying to hit my legs, but lacking the range.

Shit. I let go of it and jump back to look around for the other maid, and I go through a hole in the wall on the opposite side. I look around and...

Holy fuck. No way. I feel something deeply unpleasant rising in my throat despite knowing it's only my feeling and not something actually happening and I turn to the side, averting my eyes.

Vera's body. She was definitely Touched, because her arms progressively get almost black the further down I look, and she has strange spikes growing from her body, and she is most definitely dead. Probably Demi Monstrum. She has wounds all over her body, her chest is torn so badly she doesn't even have breasts anymore, and I'm pretty sure I see her lungs in the holes torn by claws or by fangs, but her head is still in relatively good condition.

It's also because of that that I can recognize the look of fear, despair, and unreconcilation frozen on her face as she rests on the ground, leaning on the wall.

I hug my tail to my body and bury my my head in it as I feel tears stinging my eyes. That's the reality of Chaos Storms. I and Ava survived, sure. I'm really glad we did, but... we are but two, compared to thousands who lost everything because of this Storm. Including Maria and Vera, and especially the latter. Killed by her lover, who turned into a Wild Beast. Comparing to that, Maria turning into a Beast is already pretty good fate.

Damn. How... I would like to say tragic, but those are just empty words. This is the luck we had with Ava, this is the reality and the danger of Chaos Storms.

I sigh deeply and go back to the other room where the Beast is still barking and scraping the ground. I feel my face twisting into a grimace and I feel anger rising in my chest. I grimace and ball my hands into fists, grinding my teeth. Damn. Why. Why did you...

"Why the fuck did you take Maria away!?" I scream in rage and shoot forward, plunging my hand through the side of its neck and snapping its spine in one quick twist of my arm.

I feel tears stinging my eyes again and I pull my arm out and wrap my arms around the large Canine, and bury my face in the short fur on its neck.

"Damn." I sob. "Damn. Why the fuck?" I ask no one, feeling tears flowing down my face. "You two were so happy. Like, like us. And this Beast took your place, Maria. It's not fair. At all." I say, lightly punching the Beast on its shoulder and crying bitter tears on its short fur.

I stay like that... I'm not sure how long. But long, at least minutes. The tears finally dry up and I pull my face away with a long, pained sigh, leaving the Beast to fall limply onto the ground. I wipe the vestiges of my tears away and listen to the sounds I can hear with my ears, fishing out the faint souind of the loud Chaos engine.

Yeah, I should go there. There's no point wasting any more time.

Wait, why do I feel so... lively? I feel something flowing into me... Though I can't grasp this feeling at all. It feels pleasant and a bit warm, but I don't feel my body becoming any hotter. Hm. What is that feeling? It's like... life?

Yeah, it's life. I'm not sure how I know it, but I'm damn sure it's life.

...Maria's life. The Beast she has become, at least.