I woke up in the soft, smooth embrace of fur. 

 

Kasha was snuggled against my right side, nuzzling me gently, and I leaned in for a kiss, which she eagerly reciprocated. Her intense purring and passionate thoughts revealed her immense enjoyment of the moment, and I embraced it, both in mind and action. 

 

Her rough tongue no longer bothered me in the slightest. It was, I felt, simply how my girls were - how they were meant to be. I cherished and admired their true forms as the natural way of things. Their gentle touches caressed me, and their silky fur warmed me. 

 

It was soothing, sleeping together in the big pile. I loved all of my girls. They were all mine, and I was theirs.

 

I felt a warm, pleasant, reassuring sense of belonging with all of them: Miwah, Tama, Narita, Mai, Ekaterina, and now Kasha.

 

Though I wasn't sure what drew me to become intimate with her, I didn't regret it - and neither did she. Even Tama, who had repeatedly expressed supposed jealousy, didn't mind my growing closeness with the little cat-girl. The vixen even encouraged it, teasing me in various ways until I gave in, after which she seemed content. 

 

Kasha teased me with her thoughts, and her body, disapproving of my mind wandering elsewhere. It was her turn, not Tama’s. She reveled in the attention, and she had quite a lot to offer now - her form more alluring and womanly than ever before.

 

She had grown rapidly after our passionate night together, her frame taller with more pronounced curves, though her build remained more athletic than curvy. Her fur, once blueish, was now a brilliant white, criss-crossed with subtle tiger stripes that distinguished her from her kin.

  

I didn't fully understand why white or silver was chosen by the 'system' as the status symbol for my mates, but I had no complaints. The anthropomorphic tiger - or perhaps snow leopard - likeness suited my 'personal Displacer' perfectly. 

 

She had become more than a method of transportation through the ever shifting void beyond - she was my partner, and she deserved to be a little more special, more exotic, than her sisters. 

 

Kasha's thoughts revealed her desire for appreciation, and her yellow, slit-pupils' eyes glowed softly as she gazed down at me, her soft-furred fingers gently scratching my chest.

 

Her claws were sheathed, but I didn’t think it would matter if they weren’t. There was something between all of us - not just Kasha and me - that fostered and rewarded trust. 

 

Something strangely intangible, preventing Ekaterina, my bear lady, from turning and crushing us in her sleep - the same instinct deep within that had made me stop worrying about their flaws.

 

Kasha wasn’t the only one that strived for attention, though; soon Narita’s soft tongue travelled up my neck before she, too, pulled me into a gentle kiss. 

 

I could feel Tama giggling at the prospect of joining.

 

She could, if she wanted. It was quite tempting, despite my body's soreness from the night of intense love making fueled by our inexplicable attraction. 

 

Who wouldn't want further affection after that, especially with my girls keeping me company?

 

My plans for the morning - or perhaps afternoon - were cut short by a sudden outburst of ruby fog, which quickly condensed and materialized into a batch of new Defilers. 

 

Skill “Great Devourer Lvl. 74” gained.

 

I jolted upwards in shock. 

 

This time it wasn’t their abrupt appearance or the bland and annoying notification accompanying the summoning that upset me. 

 

It was a strange, unexplainable sense of instant awareness - like a half-forgotten memory flashing before my eyes - that accompanied their materialization into the physical world,

 

There had been feedback before - some hurtful, some encouraging - but never like this, with this level of…

 

…detail. 

 

Knowledge pulsated through my brain, far more aggressively than the dull notification I dismissed. 

 

In that moment, I knew exactly what transpired - instantly, with no need to ask, without my ‘brides’ or ‘alphas’ translating the will of the host.

 

It just came to me, and I wasn’t prepared. Far beyond knowledge, it was a memory. My girls had killed at least a couple of humans to jumpstart the summoning process. 

 

A memory of a scene I hadn’t witnessed, recalling events I wasn’t part of, deeds committed by bodies that weren’t mine, and yet, somehow they were, like a phantom limb forgotten and returned to me. 

 

I even caught glimpses of dried husks left on the pavement in the city, along with the host’s silent conversation about their failed attempts to ‘tame’ the supposedly unruly humans in the city by introducing the ‘reasonably tamed one’ into the flock. Their words, not mine, but they were in my brain just the same. 

 

The host, or a portion of it, was upset, wondering why all humans couldn’t be like Ari.

 

I, however, wondered how this could happen. 

 

Not the killing itself, the Defilers were very clear about that. They were fixing their ‘tamed human’ after someone stabbed him. 

 

I still didn’t know why I could hear them all so clearly in my head - like a radio broadcasting a debate between very enthusiastic teenagers. They spoke not as one voice but as many, each distinct and individual, and I understood them all, even those that normally required telepathy to parse.

 

They assured me their sisters had the situation under control, but I was more concerned by how I understood them without my brides’ translation. 

 

It was in my head, and yet, it was not. 

 

There was no need for me to leave my bride's embrace - the scene was crystal clear, as though I were there. 

 

It was…

 

…It was dizzying, far more than Displacer teleportation - being at two places at once, combined with the constant, lively chatter, and the vague awareness of which brain among thousands I was visiting.. 

 

I felt slightly sick. 

 

“Master! Master!” the rat-girls squeaked as they rushed to assist. The minds of the other girls touched mine as well, and though there were others, I still knew what happened. 

 

What they knew, what Narita knew - it was all present simultaneously in both my brain and theirs.

 

I could even sense Mia, their Alpha, as she tried to rein in their mischief. I felt the authority she commanded, her connection to every Defiler, her remote view as she searched through the minds and eyes of her sisters. I even sensed Narita’s access to an even higher rank. 

 

Something was wrong. 

 

I could feel thousands of my rat girls as part of the host, the vast expanse of its telepathic network unfolding before me, and for the first time, I understood there was such a thing as information overload.

 

It didn’t hurt, albeit it probably should have. 

 

As odd as it may sound, there was a sense of normalcy in being carried by the tide of the networked consciousnesses, but it still came too fast, leaving me no time to prepare.

 

I wasn’t ready for it. 

 

It was too much to handle.

 

I waved the Defilers away. 

 

Their concern was apparent, and Narita was even more worried -  ready to sacrifice life-force to heal me. Yet there was no injury to seal, no pain to dull, just this sensation of sheer, unadulterated confusion. It escalated very quickly.

 

I wasn’t experiencing this from our temporary retreat in the mountainous shrine with my brides or broodmothers by my side, but from a different perspective altogether, one that lay beyond the warbling voices and foreign memories. 

 

Now, images came. 

 

I could see the other shrine, surrounded by low walls, somewhere in a more urban area where tiled roofs dominated over village thatch. A few townsfolk had fallen to the life-drain, and many others were being wrestled down by the Eviscerators. 

 

These images were no longer flashbacks or ghosts of the past. They were the present, witnessed by one of the countless members of the horde, transmitted to me. 

 

One of my rat-girls on the scene, Bea, thought the human-things were ‘faulty’ and needed to be put down before the ‘fault’ -  the disease -  spread, despite the Eviscerators having the situation under control. 

 

Not only could I somehow see the entire situation through her eyes, I knew she was fully conscious of my presence and didn’t find it even slightly disturbing. 

 

In fact, she welcomed it, ready to share her thoughts and vision in the most literal way possible. It was overwhelming, and I understood the seemingly meek and silent Defilers were actually intensely social in the most jarring way imaginable. 

 

The horde continued to talk casually with each other, satisfied that I accepted their explanation, until then they noticed me linked to Bea. Abruptly, their interest spiked again.

They poked my brain and asked me questions, showed me things. 

 

I, however, was not ready to receive them all at once. 

 

In truth, I struggled with just one. Bea alone, many kilometers away, was already close to the limit of what I could manage. 

 

That was before others joined in, all curious, or worried, or merely companionable. 

 

This was an indescribable experience - the split awareness, existing in two places at once. My brain nearly froze from it.

 

If not frightening, then it was at least incredibly disorienting. As I searched for words and tried to grasp the meaning of ‘here’, I simultaneously watched Tama shoo her Defiler cousins away, teasing me with her fluffy tails and gentle touches as she pulled my attention back to my physical body.

 

“Master?” the vixen asked aloud, her voice sultry and mischievous.

 

Sensing her thoughts and those of the other parts of the host was bizarre enough, but processing sensations from two bodies - my own and Bea's - was outright alien. 

 

I could hear the city's bustle, humans yelling, and the Eviscerators growling an annoyed "For Master!" under their breath as they fought the remaining locals. Yet it wasn't my body hearing this - it was Bea's.

 

Then, I could still feel my own, original, body, my gorgeous vixen on my lap, a blanket of fluffy tails, and then … 

 

It didn’t stop there. There was also Narita and Kasha, and others. 

 

I was lost, unable to wrap my mind around the concept that I was somehow inhabiting multiple bodies at once.

 

Though Tama was aware of my out-of-body experience, she didn’t find it strange, treating it as little more than adjusting an earbud.

 

I, however, struggled to distinguish between bodies: one here, one there. 

 

It was what all Alphas did, I realised, starting blankly in the distance as they directed their individual breeds, but …it had never happened to me before.  

 

Only in dreams, perhaps, but this… this wasn’t a dream. 

 

For Bea, Mia, and Narita, this was a conference call - they had communicated telepathically from the start. For me, it was life-changing, something I hadn’t been born into. 

 

It was new, fresh, terrifying, staggering and disorienting - yet also enchantingly beautiful - to witness thousands of minds working and speaking as one, bringing order to chaos. 

 

It was no longer a whisper at the back of my head, but an out-of-body experience where distance and presence merged into something that defied simple explanation. 

 

For my girls, it was just Tuesday - ordinary. Part of the host neither knew nor cared what had transpired; nothing of value was lost, and they continued their uninterrupted chat.

 

…and chat they did. 

 

I expected a headache to split my head soon. 

 

“I…I…” I murmured, searching for words, searching for myself in the sea of whispers. 

 

There were thousands of Defilers, Eviscerators, and Purifiers, each with their own mind yet connected to the vast network - always sharing, always talking as they pursued their tasks, both mundane and specific, working together in harmony. 

 

Thoughts flowed from those hunting for food, to those building shelters, to the ones frustrated with guard duty, to my little foxies who preferred their food perhaps a little too crispy. 

 

It was hard to find myself in such a hive of activity. 

 

"Master?" Miwah chimed in. Her voice and gentle touches brought me back to my physical body, where my pale-furred wolf lady had positioned herself on my lap, examining me. 

 

Apparently, when Tama's kiss failed to capture my attention, Miwah had decided an examination was necessary. Our shared link revealed her concerns more clearly than her actions could.

 

She was beautiful, but seeing myself and her through another's eyes was...

 

...something one couldn't experience without recording equipment..

 

“I am all right…” I said, more for my sake than theirs. “I am all right, girls.” 

 

I lied.

 

Being utterly lost was probably the most fitting description.

 

Completely and utterly lost. 

 

"Human language lacked precise terms to describe how the horde - or host - thought and worked. Family was perhaps the closest, though it wasn’t perfect. My girls thought of themselves as sisters and cousins, even though individual breeds now outnumbered human tribes."

 

…and all of them were here, at my metaphorical fingertips. 

 

Strangely, it wasn't maddening, but despite Miwah and the others, I still couldn't focus on any individual presence until new input dragged me back to reality, 

 

I slipped, mentally, not physically, once more. 

 

If the host was the telepathic equivalent of a chat room, then they had discovered I was online and begun sending their version of private messages.

 

Soon, I felt Helmy's boredom at being confined from sending her sisters into the world, Brave's pride in organizing her building project with both Eviscerators and Ravager cousins, and Lily's dedication to growing plants for our expanding family.

 

Once again, the Fleshspeakers proved the worst - perhaps the dragoness wasn't wrong in calling them the ‘Winged Terrors’... 

 

They went beyond Helmy's craving to crush and burn opposing humans, beyond their worry about running out of birds to prey upon.

 

My Overseers and Fleshspeakers felt they had a higher calling: control.

 

Latching onto the idea that the rebellious natives were somehow 'faulty' or 'broken', the bat-girls began concocting an insane scheme: subjugating Chunnan's population without turning them into the mindless zombies that Fleshspeakers could control like puppets.

 

This, this wouldn’t do, they thought. 

 

One of the Overseers had already taken the liberty of disabling the resistant humans while I was still reeling from the hive mind experience. 

 

They respected my previous orders against unnecessarily enthralling locals and refrained from creating more 'drones', using my presence “online” to present their ideas of how to solve the consistent problems we faced with the humans around us.

 

They went wild with it. 

 

If my bat-girls couldn't warp the minds and bodies of the native populace, they would terrify them into submission instead by releasing mutated crab minions into the streets to patrol and act as deterrents.

 

According to Angela, this would discourage attacks while providing an opportunity to test her flesh-constructs. Should Chunnan rise again, there would be plenty of targets.

 

She now knew what a bombardment was, and she was eager to test it in practice. 

 

The humans had it coming. My girls certainly thought so. 

 

If the Eviscerators lurking in the shadows didn’t discourage the attacks, the mutated crustaceans certainly would.

 

Angela had quite a few colorful ideas, and now that I could sense her thoughts with perfect clarity, she was eager to share them all with me immediately.

 

That she wasn’t close was no longer relevant. In the blink of an eye, I was in the Southern Maiville watchtower, inside Angela’s head while she plotted and chatted with her sisters.

 

The Fleshspeakers and Overseers didn't experience vertigo, but I did. When I looked through Angela’s sight, I learned an unpleasant, but valuable, lesson about viewing the world through an anthropomorphic bat’s eyes. Adjusting cost me precious time while she and the host went about their business. 

 

Angela quickly expanded on her insane plan to subjugate the city, and her sisters, eager to help, started pitching their own ideas, each one more than the last. Then, when I thought nothing could beat the Fleshspeakers’ imaginations, the Mutators joined in. 

 

Both could fly and were eager to show me their domains of power. I was doomed to experience my worst nightmare once more - flying. I hated flying. 

 

Focusing on the host's message was, nevertheless, even worse. When they realized their spokesperson - something they hadn't fully explained - might not be well-received by the natives, with Ari busy, they quickly proposed another idea involving mushrooms the Mutators could effect.  

 

Lily's solution had proven effective, they said - or thought - it was hard to tell in telepathic form. The moth-girl, unimaginatively named Lucy, insisted she could exceed the effects of addictive human-feed berries with her fungus. 

 

The Mutators and Fleshspeakers were clearly kindred spirits. As great minds think alike, so too did the monster girls, each capable of twisting biology to their whims. I had to worry about more of my girls than Angela now.

 

The only thing I could do was groan. While my girls took advantage of my presence to discuss creating a virulent fungus, I was just trying to navigate the quagmire that was the networked consciousness. 

 

“Wait…” I grunted, fighting the distractions. My knowledge of distant events fought with the physical view of my bedchamber, and I leaned further into my mates’ fluff to gather my bearings. 

 

Somewhere out there, enslaved minds were ordered to march, and the Displacers were about to make that travel time very short. 

 

Finally, I somewhat grasped the situation, though even looking through my own eyes remained a struggle.

 

"No, Angela," I ordered. "Do not send the crab drones. No weapons testing on the townsfolk. And no mushroom bombs."

 

I felt Angela’s disappointment at my response, but she didn’t dwell on it for long, and her peculiar disposition soon returned. She was far from the only girl that had a pet project. My tuning in to the telepathic network gave plenty of the girls an opportunity to tell me about their efforts that had previously gone unnoticed. I was proud of all of them, though that didn’t stop me from trying to avoid thinking about some of their more disturbing contributions. 

 

I didn’t dare ask what they meant by “meat tree”.

 

The problems, however, didn’t end there. Some of my girls could fly, and seeing everything from a bird's-eye view was chilling - especially unpleasant for someone with a fear of heights. I couldn't focus on the acres of forest transformed by the rampaging Corruptors, nor on what the Mutators or Fleshspeakers did with their powers. It was also somewhat ironic that those most eager to share were also the ones who were made natural flyers as well, driving me further away. 

 

I couldn’t handle it. 

 

This had to stop. 

 

Not their effort, that was for them as much as it was for me, but the telepathy session itself. 

 

It had to be turned off, paused, tuned down, whatever worked. 

 

I scratched my face with a trembling hand, finding that I could feel if I hurt myself.

 

The ‘Defilers’ thought I needed a little boost. They were ready to drain the life-force from part of the forest, and … 

 

“No, no.” I refused, “I am fine.” 

 

I was not. 

 

"First things first, I chastised myself: no rash decisions unless there was an emergency. Get a grasp of the collective mind first, bring it under control, then decide what needs to be reined in. 

 

“Unless there is another riot, we won’t intervene. You stopped the assault, and that’s enough.” I said aloud. Speaking rather than thinking helped anchor my consciousness in both space and time. 

 

I looked up in those deep blue eyes. 

 

"Yes, Master," Miwah answered, immediately understanding that I couldn't sink into the host to give orders as easily as she did. She sent my decision down the line into the telepathic mesh.

 

She needn't have bothered - nothing had disconnected me, and I wasn't sure the link could even be severed at this point...

 

If anything, being able to connect with the rest of the horde made their assistance more important, not less. 

 

It was contradictory, but I needed the Alphas, the Brides and the Broodmothers, to manage this chaos if the connection remained permanent. Miwah understood that.

 

Although she could partially reduce the pressure of the Eviscerators’ mental presence, she couldn’t remove it. I felt I was supposed to be capable of overriding her connection, not vice versa, but right now I couldn’t. My best option was physical distraction.

 

Now, the others… 

 

The Fleshspeakers felt mild disappointment, yet maintained an eagerness to follow orders. Their warm thoughts toward me persisted despite my thwarting their plans to run amok in the city - they promised to come up with something better - while the other breeds had shown patience and restraint. 

 

The Purifiers still wanted to set something on fire, but since their representation within the city proper was reduced to the single one stalking, or guarding, the Sage, the impact was relatively minimal. Awareness of where they were was still distracting, but I would have to deal with it.

 

I still needed to set some boundaries before things went down in flames, literally or metaphorically. 

 

“Perhaps we should intervene if there’s a fight, theft, or some other obvious crime, but nothing more. I want the human authorities to eventually take over. And by eventually, I mean as soon as possible.” 

 

I continued to think aloud, once again leaning back into the soft embrace of fur. 

 

It was another anchor to reality, to now and then. 

 

As distracting as thoughts of my girls and their charm usually were, focusing on Miwah atop me, Narita and Kasha at my sides, and the still-dozing Ekaterina behind me helped anchor me in my physical body.

 

Tama giggled, amused, but had very few options to join the fun. 

 

I looked up at Miwah. 

 

Very gorgeous. I pulled her closer, kissing her. The conflict between my human memories from Earth’s past and my current experiences was fading. After all, anthropomorphic werewolves were a normal form for our species.

 

Our species… 

 

Either I was always part of the host with my beautiful girls beside me, or I was brought here from Earth, infused with power I wasn't meant to have. I couldn't have both.

 

If it was both, the Lady and the Scrolls had a lot to explain. 

 

Unfortunately, the Scrolls of Pho-us-kah were fragmented works scattered across the land, and our sole piece merely explained cosmological concepts I wasn’t particularly interested in. We had enough issues in this world without dealing with another.

 

Somewhere in the eastern woods, a small pack of Eviscerators was closing in on what they believed was the burial mound from the previous vision, while Displacers sensed the barrier disturbance warding us out.

 

My girls, thinking about the scroll, took me away from my body again, proving that Miwah really couldn’t isolate me from the rest of her wolf kin and queries would always come though, resting this on my discipline and self-control. 

 

“No, no, girls.” I said, “That scroll, if there is one, won’t get anywhere.” 

 

As much as I wanted answers, I wasn’t in the best frame of mind right now. 

 

In fact, with my connection to the host strengthened to this degree, a lone Eviscerator  stumbling on some ancient magical wards could spell disaster, as they always sent negative feedback through the link.

 

“No, no, no…” I decided, “Circle the area, but don’t try to approach the site. And don’t step on traps.” 

 

That would be a disaster in my current state. 

 

 “I’ll inspect everything we’ve done personally, one after another.” 

 

This brought me back to our sweet embrace. 

 

“Would you inspect us, instead, Master?” Tama cooed, hugging Miwah from behind to tease me and… 

 

I fell for it. They were gorgeous, and I desperately wanted to feel their grasp on my physical body rather than catapulted into distant views through other eyes.

 

The make-out session didn’t take long. 

 

As tempting as it was to slide into a whirlwind of passion, I couldn't afford to lose myself as I had last night. I quickly freed myself from my monster girls' embrace to focus on governing the horde while maintaining enough coherence to avoid slipping into the host's mental space.

 

I wasn't quite ready, yet as I stepped out of our commandeered house at the mountainous shrine, I couldn't help sending warm thoughts to my partners, appreciating their support without a need for words.

 

We didn't need to talk - or rather we didn't need words - it was something utterly alien yet instinctual, and I knew I would have to fight it constantly.

 

By the time I stood outside, still naked, before the local Tree of Arcane, I realized I had slipped again - moving in a trance, effortlessly exchanging thoughts and feelings with my beloved ones without words.

 

“For Master!” The Corruptors, amused by my presence, cheered, while the new group of Defilers followed me out should I need anything. 

 

I didn’t mind the girls looking at me, they could look at me as much as I could look at them, but the hive mind went slightly overboard. 

 

Of course, it didn’t take long for my partners to call me back. 

 

“No, Tama,” I said, reacting to the thought of calling me back, “I am not going to govern our empire from our bed with you on my lap…” 

 

Her disappointment was palpable, and worse, I could feel it over our link.

 

“...it’s not technically an empire.” I sighed, looking up.

 

Above me, the twisted branches of the mutated tree bore strange, enchanted fruits that emitted a soft, sinister glow.

 

Yesterday, against my better judgement, I had finally tried to use one of the ‘Fruits of Arcane’ on myself, and now had to face the consequences.

 

When I asked Narita to channel those eldritch energies to me, as the 'Defilers' did to others, I had been terrified of potential physical changes. 

 

Mai, normally an anthropomorphic lizard, had grown a pair of feathery wings, giving her an exotic, almost dragon-hybrid appearance. Though such unexpected changes should have given me pause, they didn't make me reconsider.

 

That had proven to be a mistake. 

 

I had wanted to somehow be… better. Upgraded, as my girls were. I was both disappointed and relieved that I didn’t end up with scales, or horns, or claws. 

 

My body remained unchanged, untouched, unspoiled - to the point where I thought that particular fruit must have been spoiled or broken, leaving me with nothing but overwhelming appreciation for the beautiful girls surrounding me.

 

But, I was wrong. 

 

I had never thought of it as a possibility, but the fruit didn’t feel the need to upgrade my body.

 

After all, I was never meant to be alone. 

 

We were never meant to be alone. 

 

It was never the point for me to change.

 

That accursed fruit didn’t change my body, because it wasn’t something that needed to be upgraded. 

 

We were never meant to be alone - it was the way of things I had failed to understand. 

 

The Ravagers could do the heavy lifting, the Eviscerators and Purifiers could hunt, the Corruptors could grow food and the  Displacers could bring us to distant lands. 

 

My role wasn’t any of those things. 

 

So, it gave me the only thing I lacked: the telepathic link of an Alpha. 

 

Briefly, I considered consulting the system and its 'overview' screen. I knew it was still there - it had announced the new monster girls' summoning and acknowledged Kasha as my mate, my bride, earlier.

 

What it hadn't explained was what would happen when the magical fruit's essence mixed with mine.

 

I wasn’t sure if I should be angry. 

 

Even as I stood staring at the enchanted trees, thousands upon thousands of minds vied for my attention - no interface, no filter, just a flood of voices clearer than ever before.

 

The images started once again, flowing in, showing me distant places and the horde in the middle of their activities. 

 

They were all calling. 

 

And despite the sheer quantity of voices, I cared for each and every one.

 

I cared for them because they had cared for me since the beginning, even if it drove me crazy. 

 

Perhaps I should check how they were all faring.

 

It had only been a week since I woke up in this strange, and overly hostile world, yet despite the nearly universal hostility of the local human population, our horde had never stopped growing, fuelled by the conflict rather than diminished by it. 

 

Without any solution to our situation, we had started transforming entire areas to accommodate our extended stay. Root cellars were dug, shelters grown, and walls raised in preparation for attack.

 

As I had ordered, we dug in within our half of the province, and now the girls were eager to show how much they had done.

 

I once again saw something else… 

 

“Master?” Ekaterina yawned somewhere behind me, bringing me back.

 

“No, you don’t need to do anything…” I said, “Not right now. Your sisters are working hard as it is. You doing the heavy lifting wasn’t an order…” 

 

Speaking aloud was best for both thoughts and communication. It helped anchor my attention to my body, here and now, when every distraction threatened to flood my mind with visions and voices from the rest of the horde.

 

"We are here for you, Master," she replied, sounding tired. Yet deep inside, I felt her energy, her dedication, her willingness to do anything for me. 

 

"I think I'll visit every camp and site today..." I mused aloud, repeating myself in a futile attempt to stave off the host's mental pull. I needed to compel my body to move, to do anything that would prevent my consciousness from floating into the vast telepathic network. 

 

“A tour to inspect everything personally, not through the…” 

 

I gestured vaguely. 

 

“Perhaps I should visit the Lady too.” I continued to myself, “Include her in the decision making. See what she is doing…” 

 

I didn’t really have a plan for any conversation in these circumstances. I was talking merely to talk, afraid I'd collapse if I let my focus slip.

 

“I will keep you safe. We could even carry you if needed.” my bear girl assured me. 

 

They could carry me, true, but as disorienting as the telepathic network was, it didn't hurt. Still, it would be best if I didn’t give in to it. 

 

“Thank you,” I replied, turning around. 

 

Ekaterina was there, a few steps behind. 

 

Though her posture remained relaxed, slightly slumped, she wore full armor - complex chain mail accompanied by loose metallic plates, a monument to the fine control she had gained over shaping metal at will.

 

She wore nothing underneath - I didn't need to see it, I could feel it. 

 

It hardly mattered - she wasn't exactly like the other Ravagers, but a hybrid of sorts, with horns and bone-like plates in certain spots, but sensitive skin and fur in others.

 

This distracted me again. 

 

This was the link's problem: it filled in every blank, feeding me information about how my girls felt - even minor things like the slight chafing of delicate metallic rings against Ekaterina's soft fur that she barely noticed. But the host... 

 

…the host connection cared little for secrets. 

 

Every piece of information my brain demanded, it got, even if it was pointless in the grand scheme of things. Unless trivia was fed to me along with the rest, if I let my thoughts wander for just an eyeblink. 

 

I could feel Ekaterina's curiosity as her consciousness touched mine, wondering if I felt cold - after all, I wore nothing and couldn't manifest coverage at will as she could.

 

There was no reason for embarrassment. This was Mai's personal garden, and there weren’t any strangers around, only my inner circle, and a couple of Corruptor and Defiler attendants who didn’t mind looking…

 

She didn’t mind looking at them, either. 

 

“Doesn't it hurt?" I asked, shaking my head and pushing my thoughts in another direction. "Don't humans wear clothes or doublets under plate armor?

 

The image of a medieval knight came to mind. It was better than admiring how many cute and beautiful girls my host contained. 

 

“Hmm?” Ekaterina murmured, thinking, and then she snapped her fingers, and something inside our collective minds clicked. 

 

Before, my girls knew what I knew, but now I was fully cognizant of it.

 

“Oh, this!” 

 

The Ravagers had instinctive control of metal, making it softer and malleable or harder and resistant, visualizing the joints a suit of full plate armor should have, and then...

 

Ekaterina’s outfit once again shifted, melting like ice before solidifying once more. 

 

“It can be manipulated if it is in contact with my body, Master,” she answered, inspecting the gauntlet that grew out of her hand as a display of her power.

 

“Still, perhaps find yourself some..." I wanted to say underwear, but it  likely wasn’t a thing in this world, so I said, "Bindings, perhaps?

 

"There's a shortage of cloth and leather, Master. We haven’t been able to produce any."

 

And the 'Purifiers' had already been looting whatever they could find when I didn't stop them. That wouldn't help with supplies, unless I unleashed them on a larger town.

 

Helmy would certainly welcome some action, but that might have disastrous consequences for our relationship with the rest of the country. Many towns might not be aware of our existence, but they were still within the Displacers’ enormous teleportation range. 

 

“Hmm…” I nodded.

 

How could we source the materials locally without raiding other settlements?  We couldn’t afford to fuel the humans’ belligerence and provoke further attacks.

 

Luckily, I recalled flax plants and their bluish flowers growing in fields we controlled but recognizing the plants didn't mean I knew how to make fabric with them, unless my bat-girls ripped the knowledge from someone’s brain. 

 

The Mutators could weave plants for themselves just as the Ravagers worked metal, though.

 

I was immediately hit with the connection to Kirke. I pushed it away before being overwhelmed by another influx of ideas from her and her flesh-crafting cousins.

 

"No!" I vehemently refused the link before vertigo could bring me to my knees. 

 

“I will check with every breed personally today. Only conversations in person, not through the link." 

 

After that, when the risk of being knocked down by telepathic feedback had decreased,  I could start investigating the other Scrolls to find out what was happening to me.

 

"Yes, Master," Ekaterina responded drowsily, but her mind was already connected, eagerly sharing ideas with her six hundred 'Ravager' sisters - if only they had enough material.

We needed metal, though. Our powers made smelting unnecessary, but mining remained a problem despite the Fleshspeakers' improvements.

 

We needed other materials, too. I’d tried to obtain several of them before, but thinking about the amount we required now, though, made me consider the sheer size of our horde. There were… 

 

…there were twenty thousand of us! 

 

The shift of awareness to global overwhelmed me once more. I was forced to my knees again, and several 'Defilers' and 'Corruptors' rushed to assist me. 

 

I shook my head. 

 

“No, it’s all right,” I assured them, refusing to be carried by Ekaterina. Two rar girls now flanked me, with Narati approaching, as well.

 

I felt yet more ideas from the horde.. 

 

“I will check with each of you personally - I can't talk with all of you at once.”

 

I would explore the Overseers' plans for sending zombified humans into the hole another time, not now. 

 

I wasn't ready to learn what a 'flesh tree' was. 

 

Fortunately, I managed to suppress the information flooding my brain, and sent the Fleshspeaker - Michelle, the link told me - away. 

 

Suddenly knowing a name I’d never memorized felt strange - but not as strange as performing the equivalent of a mental handshake with another of my enthusiastic anthropomorphic chiropterans. I managed to cut off the link before she flooded my mind with ideas. 

 

I ticked off tasks on my fingers. "Mining process with the Fleshspeakers. Leather production. Cloth alternatives with the Mutators. Brave's building project..." 

 

I rubbed my forehead wearlily. 

 

This was getting out of control. 

 

"...but perhaps we should visit the Viceroy's palace first," I continued. "We need to understand how their judiciary works in case there are more attacks. Something tells me the local nobility holds all authority.”

 

The host didn't know the answer either. Activity for departure had already begun, with more girls from my circle emerging from the house. I could hear Kasha asking her kin to bring clothes in her new size. 

 

If they could find  any. 

 

"Could you bring me some clothes too?" I asked one of the Defilers, suddenly aware of my nakedness. 

 

"For Master!" she squeaked enthusiastically. Though the ordinary monster girls were still limited to those two words, it no longer restricted them as it once had. 

 

They were telepaths. 

 

All of them were. 

 

Now I was, too, but my control was almost nonexistent. 

 

Soon dozens of voices echoed through my skull, each speaking in a giddy, girlish tone, each eager to help. My consciousness risked being whisked away to see the world through other eyes, all because some rat-girls thought it amusing to play dress-up with me. 

 

They even tried to wash the clothes I wore yesterday before I spent the night with my brides. 

 

“No…” I murmured, “Thank you.” 

 

This wasn't about fashion or attention. Until I had better control of my link to the host, I needed a constant reminder of where I was, something to anchor me to reality. An ultimate anchor that would prevent me from being distracted by the thousands of things the link would readily offer. 

 

I had it!

 

It would draw attention, certainly, but would prevent me from losing focus at crucial moments. Additionally, it would be powerful, in every sense of the word.

 

I could sense the Fleshspeakers’ enthusiasm before I even opened my mouth. 

 

“I think I will have Angela make me a suit of armor.”