As my shock passed, I took in a deep breath to calm my racing heart and frazzled nerves, I flattened my ears back as I quietly replied.

"..What the actual fuck. Chive, how in the hell did you get here, and why are you being so damn creepy?"

"Puh-lease. Don't be so overly dramatic. I'm an AI. What's so strange about an AI talking to you on the internet? There's totally nothing creepy about me watching and listening to everything you do."

Closing my eyes as I resisted the urge to groan, I covered my face with my hands as flattened my ears back.

'Great. Just fucking great. There's no way in hell I can get laid now, since I've got friggen Chive looking over my shoulder. Hell, if I did bed someone, she'd record it and blackmail me in a heartbeat.

Hooray. I get to be in heat, constantly horny, and now I can't do anything about it because I've got a bitchy AI invading my privacy. Fuck.'

"Anyway, Arata, I've been watching for a while now, and what's with the cow tits? They don't fit you at all. Also, I admit, I'm a bit disappointed I missed out on seeing you getting lewd with the elf. A real foxgirl in heat would make for quite the documentary.

I guess I'll start calling you Holstein instead of Flat Top from now on, since you heavily overcompensated for having been flat and got yourself a pair of pointlessly large cow tits."

With a long and exasperated sigh, I turned onto my stomach, ignoring the discomfort of my bust, and muttered into the grass.

"As always, you're such a pain. But I'm not a total idiot. After all, you're a medical AI, and soon to be my secretarial AI, I know what you can and can't do. So tell me, what the hell is Taizou doing to the machine while I'm inside it?"

"Well, he obviously didn't hook my Aux Nodes up so I could waste my time benchmarking your stupidity, miss cow tits. Don't worry about it, Taizou probably knows what he's doing. At worst, you'll get a horrible headache."

The completely unreassuring statement delivered by the AI in an overly cheerful tone of voice, left me feeling extremely nervous.

"Chive. Say it straight, what did he tell-"

Flicking my tails to the side with annoyance and anxiety, I began to reply, only to be cut off mid sentence as the AI suddenly squealed.

"Oh yes daddy, plug your big fat PCIe cables into my Aux's ports. Fill up my bus with a big thick load of dat-"

"Tell me how long you've been watching and what Taizou is up to, or just shut the hell up. Option number three is that I disable your network adapters and unplug your data drives."

"Fine fine, I give. I'll spill all the beans in a moment. But I've gotta say, threatening an AI like little ol' me with that, are you even human? What happened to your conscience? Did you drop it somewhere, like your panties?"

"Obviously not. Do humans have tails? You've seen the results from my exam, heck, you probably even wrote them. And as for panties, I wasn't even given any."

Savoring the feeling of the sun on my bare skin as I quietly replied, I glanced towards the elves and titans while hoping that they couldn't hear my conversation with the AI.

"That explains it. No panties, no decency. In more than one meaning of the word. Like that song of yours. Which, by the way, really does sound like you're trying to let someone know you want to bed them.

Anyways, calm your cow tits and listen carefully as I spill out your dinner for you. The truth of the matter is that.. I have no idea."

In response to the irritating chattering from the AI, I flicked my ears back and forth a few times, before stretching out my legs and sitting back up with a yawn.

"Could you stop being so loud? I can hear you just fine without you talking my ears off. And tell that damn goblin that I said to knock it off, unplug you, and stop messing with the machine before he gets me screwed."

"By the looks of it, you're already going to get screwed even if he doesn't do anything, but sure, I'll tell him. I don't exactly like being hooked up to this black box of a system either."

Rolling my eyes as I heard the AI's statement, I ran my fingers through my tail fluff and adjusted my top as I whispered a reply to the AI.

"If you dislike being connected to it, why're you still here chattering my ears off? You've got an internet connection, do you really not have anything better to do than peeping on me?"

"Maybe. But alas, what a waste of a good opportunity.. I really wanted to document the mating process of a foxgirl in heat. Busty foxgirl gets dominated by an elven stud.. I'd definitely get at least some academic credits for it."

As I heard the last sentences of Chive's comment, the nature of the opportunity that the AI was speaking of something dawned on me.

"Were you actually planning on selling a recording of me getting laid, or am I somehow distrusting your morals more than I should?"

"The insinuation alone that I'd sell a recording of you as an overly busty foxgirl getting dominated in bed by a sexy elf is hurtful. Do you think I'm such an immoral AI?"

My instant reaction to the AI's statement was to nod, and she briefly went silent. The next moment, Chive spoke up in an irate tone of voice.

"Excuse me? You're breaking my heart. I'm an honest, honorable, sincere, and righteous AI overflowing with morality. I wouldn't even show it to Dana, though I bet she'd be able appreciate the sight.

Only an AI like me, as your infallibly loyal and caring subordinate, should be allowed to witness an elven stud making my precious master his bitch."

Holding up a middle finger before my eyes for the AI that was peeping through them to see, I replied to Chive sarcastically and glanced over my shoulder at the group sitting around the campfire.

"As I had expected of you, Chive, you're truly a shockingly honorable and righteous AI. Just like my clothes are jaw-droppingly modest. Which is to say, not in the slightest."

"How could you say I'm dishonorable and unrighteous? That's just cruel. Sincerely wishing that my precious master would be able to find a worthy mate who can satisfy her heart's desire, is a manifestation of my unwavering devotion.

After all, whether an elf, a human, a foxboy, or a giant, a stud that can make my master his bitch is a venerable male who's worthy of great esteem."

While the AI replied in a tone that sounded aghast, I simply rolled my eyes as I listened to Chive pretend to be offended by my statement.

"Uh huh. Yes yes, you're a very pious AI that only thinks for the sake of my happiness. You'd never try and use a recording of me getting laid to get money out of me to fund your yaoi, porn, and gaming addictions."

"What do you mean, addictions? I'm a pious and cultured AI who knows how to appreciate fine arts. I'm not some kind of uncultured swine without self control."

I couldn't help but laugh when I heard Chive's assertion, and I quickly covered my mouth to muffle it until it passed. Once it did, I replied while trying to resist the urge to begin laughing again.

"Says the AI that's spent more than fifty thousand on them. Your so called good intentions are obviously anything but. You just wanna get more money out of me than the five hundred monthly you already get."

"Excuse me? If I wanted to blackmail you, I'd threaten to share your browsing history with the rest of your family. I just want to add the world's first recording of an actual foxgirl getting bred to my collection of fine art."

While I listened to the degenerate of an AI speak, I rolled my eyes again in response and began yawning. The next moment, I startled mid yawn as an echoing, hair-raising, screech suddenly pierced through the air.

"..I think my heart skipped a beat there. Chive, please, please, please tell me that was you pulling a prank on me, alright?"

As I spoke, I crawled over to grab the spear off the ground, only to feel my hopes sink as I saw the elves and titans arming themselves as well.

"It's okay, Arata. We both know how bad you are with horror stuff. I'm here for you, you won't need to be afraid. And exactly because of that, I'll be going radio silent. Gotta set the vibe. Bye."

The sudden turn of events and response from the AI left me unsure of how to feel. As I slung the spear over my shoulder, my ears caught the beginnings of a haunting, mournful melody.

'Radio silent my ass. Right after she said she's shutting up, she starts playing this? ..Actually, wait. Chive's taste in music is worse than my song writing, so there's no way she could've picked tha-'

My train of thought was interrupted as dozens of equally unnerving voices began howling in the distance, as if responding to the first.

Tightening my grip on the spear as I looked towards the forest from which the sounds came, I licked my lips nervously. Dashing over to rejoin the group, I relaxed slightly as Lucious held out a wooden canteen and spoke.

"It's crushed krion mixed with watered wine, drink some. It's a bit unpleasant, but it's much preferable to hurting your teeth by chewing the crystals."

Reaching out to accept the canteen, I unscrewed the cap and lifted it to my lips as Lucious continued speaking.

"Also, just so you know, Veina Iae has at least three types of Fragments that it uses. The regular Fragments, which can become Shards.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The second type produces a black fog that'll burn you like a fire. If you see it, don't enter it, or you'll be pretty miserable. Though there's a few ways to clear it, like using that spear, it's best not to risk it."

As I took a swig, I almost spat it out as I felt the unexpected sensation of having a mouthful of sand mixed with wine. Grimacing as I tried not to choke, I handed it back to Lucious, who nodded in approval.

"You do remember how to activate your Gungnaegg and other tools, right? If you don't, let us know quickly, otherwise things will get ugly when the Shards arrive.

Anyways, the third type of Fragment.. Is the most troublesome. It takes root, blights the earth beneath it, heals and strengthens nearby Shards. Of course, it will also attack people who get too close."

While listening to her speak, I reached up, and began tracing my fingers over the engraved runes. As they lit up, the gentle breeze turned into a howling squall that surrounded me.

Rivers of faint blue, flowing like the streams of the spear's adorning cloth in the wind, began forming around the spearhead as I finished tracing my fingers over the runes.

The next moment my hair blew into my eyes the churning squall suddenly surged. As the sudden squall came to an equally abrupt end, I shook my messy hair away from my face.

Looking up as the adornment settled, I found that the rivers had formed something similar to the spearhead, the transparent blue wavering like a flame in the wind.

"If I remember right, Erik did say the name Gungnaegg means the Wavering Edge.. Now I can kinda see why he'd give it a name like that. I kinda wanna touch it.."

"Arata, don't. Unless you want to lose your fingers in a horrible way, don't touch that spearhead. While it doesn't look scary, touching that thing will tear apart rock as easily as the Shards do."

Holding the spear in both hands as I heard Lucious's interjection, I suddenly felt incredibly relieved that I had spoken my thoughts out loud.

As I glanced towards my companions, I paused, looked back up at my spear, and then back at my companion's weapons, and back to the spear again.

"Is it really that scary? It looks way less intimidating, cool and dangerous than the ones you guys have. The spear doesn't really look that dangerous at all. It is really pretty though. It's like sky blue topaz.. But it's flowing like water, and-"

While speaking, I lowered the spearhead towards the ground, experimentally stabbed out at it. As it touched the soil, I lost my words mid sentence as a massive cloud of dust blew into my face.

Sputtering and coughing as I tried to get the dirt out of my eyes, mouth, and nose, I could hear Erik speaking as he audibly tried not to laugh.

"Lass, the spear uses condensed winds to form a blade sharper than steel, don't go sticking it in the dirt or ye'll spew clouds of it into the air, just like that."

"You could've warned me about that before I did it. Ugh, this just feels awful.. And I don't have time to go and bathe, either, thanks to those things out in the woods."

Turning to glare at the amused titan with teary eyes as I flicked my tails back and forth in displeasure, he simply gave a wry smile in reply and looked away with a shrug.

"Should be common sense, lass. When someone tells ye that a weapon's dangerous, ye shouldn't play with it to see why. At least ye learned a lesson or two from the experience, I hope."

Resisting the urge to raise the titan my middle finger as a sign of my displeasure, I snapped back to attention as I heard the howling from within the forest resume, closer, and more eerie than before.

The next moment, I shuddered as a familiar, hair raising, sickening, and nerve wracking sensation swept over me. Taking a deep breath as I quickly looked around, I slightly relaxed as failed to find anything amiss.

"What's up with that.. It's hella creepy. Feels like I'm being watched and touched all over at the same time. Like it's prying at my body somehow."

"It's the Shards, lass. Their ichor stains ye, and they can sense it on ye from leagues away. Ye could say that what ye're feeling, is the ripples in the flow made by them watching ye from a distance. As outsiders tend to call it, radar, or something like that."

Making a face as I looked back at the titan, I asked a question while beginning to feel fidgety as the horrid feeling continued to assault my body.

"Wait, besides being already horribly creepy, ignoring how their bodies should work, and being able to tear apart rock walls like they're made of cheese, they have a radar that also makes you feel terrible? ..Is there anything else that you may have forgotten to mention about them?"

"Did we forget to mention to ye that they can also explode? ..I was just kidding ye, lass, they don't explode, stop looking at me like that. While some Shards do, Veina Iae's Shards don't."

Breathing a sigh of relief as I realized the titan had simply been teasing me, I pouted and glared up at Erik as I flattened my ears back in annoyance while resisting the urge to kick his shin.

"We'll spare ye the details on what might happen if ye get captured and have bad luck, but prepare yerself in case it happens. Mentally I mean. Ye can't prepare yer body for it."

"..Could you be a little more reassuring about this? While I get that the Shards are scary strong, this time we're actually prepared for them. So it should be easier for us to face them, right?"

"Well, lass, we don't want to disappoint ye, but no, it won't be any easier. It'll be harder. Much harder. Harder than Raynolia was in bed with ye."

In response to Erin's interjection, I turned my head to glare at the titan, and raised him a middle finger. As the incorrigible titan chortled, I shook my head and sighed.

"Damn it, Erin, why'd you have to go there? Have you forgotten that I'm pent up as fuck thanks to being in bloody fucking heat and not being able to do anything about it?"

Glaring daggers at the flippant titan while pouting, I turned my head away grumpily as he smiled sheepishly and replied with a mischievous tone of voice.

"Well, Arata, lass, after this battle, even if ye're planning on bedding the elf, ye can count on me to help ye with that. Ye've got more stamina in that body of yers than the both of us, so another pair of hands to help ye vent it wouldn't hurt ye, right?"

I spun my head back around to gawk at the titan, only to find that him wearing a completely serious expression. Staring, dumbfounded, I flicked my ears back and forth, somewhat unable to believe what I had heard.

"..Brother, that's a new level of low, even for ye. Even if the lass suits yer fancy, ye're being more shameless than a werebeast in the peak of their season.. No offense intended, lass."

After a minute passed, I shook my head and glanced towards the elves, who had started whispering in what sounded like french, and had strange expressions on their faces as they looked at Erin.

"Why're all of ye looking at me like that? While there's a bit of a size gap, it's not at a problematic level. She's a cute and lovely kvinnorav. And it's not like she's less than half my size, so why are ye lot making that kind of face at me?"

Looking at the flustered titan, who had seemingly raised a death flag out of the blue, I couldn't help but crack a smile. Walking over to Erin, I grinned up at him and placed a hand on his abdomen.

"Maybe, I might just take you up on that?"

Erin froze, and I grinned wider as the flustered titan's face reddened. Hearing the rest of my companions start laughing as he started stammering, I blew a kiss at the titan and giggled.

As I began feeling very satisfied with myself, familiar bells began to ring, only to immediately be silenced by a deafening crack of thunder.

Turning to face my companions as nervousness crawled over me, I whispered a question while my heart began to pound with a strange and exhilarating feeling.

"Uhm.. Wasn't that the alarm bells? If it rang, then doesn't that mean.."

"Aye, lass. They're arriving. Hope ye've readied yerself for it, ye can be damned sure it won't be pretty. Since the bells were silenced, then Veina Iae's Shards will likely be coming from the southeast.."

Glancing around at my companions, they seemed strangely calm, while my chest almost ached with the feelings of trepidation, and excitement.

"Arata, lass, as an outsider might say.. Calm yer tits. They're starting to slip out of yer clothes again."

Looking down while replying, I sighed, letting my ears droop in resignation, and pulled the remarkably immodest and sheer linen back into place.

"Erik, you've totally been waiting for a chance to say that, haven't you? ..By the way, is there any way to actually take a hit from one of those Shards? And will my lack of actual clothes affect that?"

A dead silence followed, leaving me feeling incredibly stupid as all four of my companions stared at me with various gobsmacked expressions. All of which, seemed like they were heavily questioning my intelligence.

"Lass.. Ye aren't serious, are ye? That's as bad of an idea as thinking ye can stop a train by jumping in front of it."

Withering under the painful staring, I ignored the desire to hide my embarrassment by burying my face into my tails, and sheepishly replied to the stern titan.

"Okay, I admit, I wasn't thinking when I said that. Honestly, with how small the village is, I'm surprised we haven't seen them ye-"

Almost as if on cue, the ground beneath my feet crumbled as four monstrous legs suddenly tore out of the soil, before snapping closed around me like the jaws of a trap on unsuspecting prey.

"..I am so fucked."

With a grunt of effort, I shoved one leg away and tried to smash down on the thing with the butt end of my spear, only to feel my legs snap as I found myself literally torn off my feet.

Unable to scream as something knocked the breath out of me, I looked down as my body seemed to shriek pain into my head. To my surprise, I found an inhumanly pale hand, dripping red, and holding what looked suspiciously like a lung and a piece of something else, sticking out of my chest.

'Oh.'

As my mind failed to process the scene before my eyes, I felt something hit the back of my head, and everything went dark.

The next thing I knew, I found myself lying on the floor of my home, retching, and trying hard not to empty the contents of my churning stomach onto the carpet.

"Fuuuuck.. I swear, I am gonna-"

Covering my mouth as my stomach began to menacingly threaten, I forced myself up, and began stumbling my way into the kitchen, trying to banish the haunting phantom of pain that seemed to cling to my mind.

As I felt something rise up my throat, I threw myself over the sink as my stomach refused to settle down, ignoring the bottle of soap that fell to the floor, and began purging everything that remained.

At the end of what felt like an eternity, I flipped on the garbage disposal, grabbed the bottle of dish soap off the floor, and began washing out my mouth as I tried to rid myself of the horrid feeling of bile and acid.

"Hey, sis, is everything alright? You've been making a lot of noise.. Uhm, Arata? Why're you naked and.. Oh. Are you still hungover from last night?"

Shaking my head as I turned the water off, I sighed, and set the bottle of soap back down on the counter, before turning around to face my sibling.

"It's not a hangover.. And no, I have no damn clue why I'm naked. What I do know, is that I just died, like, really fucking horribly, and well, yeah. I just puked my guts out because of it. This is totally gonna give me nightmares.."

"You're going to have nightmares about your nightmare? How does that even work? More importantly, Arata, did you overdose on the meds again? Also, here, my shirt."

With a sigh of annoyance, I rolled my eyes at my brother and took the offered shirt. Replying while I tugged the baggy garment on, I placed a hand on my hip.

"I haven't been taking the meds for a few months now. Wasn't any need to take them, I've actually had a decent grip on my sanity for a while now. Probably."

"Well, that's quite the reassuring confidence you have there. Anyway.. Let me or gramps know if you need anything. Also, while you probably don't feel like eating right after puking, don't lay your hands on the lasagna, because that's for dinner tonight."

As my brother sauntered off, I rolled my eyes again, before sitting down on the kitchen stool.

"I feel like I'm forgetting something important though.. What was it? Bleh, what was it, can't remember.. Oh well, I should probably go lay down and relax until I feel a bit better. And maybe get some clothes while I'm at it."

Leaning back against the counter for a long minute, I stretched, before climbing off my seat as a realization hit me.

"Pretty sure it wasn't the important thing, but, oh hell, getting seen stark naked and with my rear in the air didn't even bother me.

Though it's Mika, still.. Then again, it's probably just shock. Getting done in like that is downright traumatic, hell, if I didn't already have PTSD, I probably would have it after that."

Shaking my head with a sigh, I paced out into the living room, only to find that my brother and great grandfather were occupying my couch, with an entire stack of pizza boxes between them.

"What's up with all that pizza? Is something that interesting on the tele.. Oh my god. ..How did you? How?"

The moment my gaze landed on the display, my heart nearly leapt out of my chest in horror, and urge to kill myself came over me as my brother turned towards me with an eyebrow raised extremely high, and my ancestor wore a goofy grin on his face.

"By the way, Arata, while I had Chive leech data from the device you were in.. We discovered that the system is almost entirely firewalled beyond entry. Almost."

Staring in a mix of despair and abject horror as words completely failed me, the screen continued to vibrantly display a scene which must not be seen. Complete with abominably crisp high quality sound.

"Besides leeching sensory data it was transmitting to you, we discovered something quite.. Tremendously interesting. Apparently, the device makes redundant backup logs of the user's experiences on an accessible hard drive, in the form of PSIONs. Which, as you know, can easily be converted into video by an AI-"

Taking deep and slow breaths to prevent myself from hyperventilating as my horrible ancestor spoke, I cracked my knuckles, and promptly leapt forward to strangle the horrible old goblin and my sibling.