For the third time in far too quick a succession, Kane once again gasped as his eyes snapped open, and he sat up on instinct. 

Panting a little, he looked around with caution, and quickly noticed that he was still in his soul world. Except, it looked a little different. First of all, the sea and sky had returned to calm. The sea slowly ebbed and flowed, while the different shades of darkness above drifted slowly like clouds. 

But there was also a far more glaring difference. Rather than pure darkness, everything was engulfed in a soft crimson glow. A glow that stemmed from a crimson, crescent moon, hanging in the dark void overhead. His gaze fixated on that moon with fascination. He felt a strange power thrumming from that moon, filling his soul. 

It was a power that stirred something in him. It was the pure dread he felt before. Yet, somehow, it didn't fill him with fear anymore. Instead, he felt comforted. 

"Welcome back, Dreadwolf," came the slightly teasing voice of Mána behind him. "Don't worry, you were only out for a few seconds." 

Kane quickly turned around and realized his head had been lying on her lap. Instead of feeling comforted by that, he quickly stood up and narrowed her eyes at this woman who he still knew far too little about. "What the hell happened?" 

Mána stood up and smiled, still teasingly, but there was a care and affection in her gaze that wasn't there before. She turned her gaze towards the crescent moon, "Finally, the dread moon shines again. You became Dreadwolf. One of the eight aspects of the moon, belonging to the volfar species. My wards." 

Strangely, that feeling of connection and trust he felt towards Mána had grown far stronger after waking up. He almost felt his resolve wavering, but then slammed down on those feelings again. Ironically, his caution towards Mána went up once again. "What the hell just happened? Volfar? And what do you mean wards?" 

Surprisingly, Mána's teasing smile actually wavered a little when she saw his caution and suspicion. "I'll prove you can trust me, Kane," she mumbled softly. "I only hope you can forgive me my part in all this. I promise it will end up as an overall positive for you."

But then she shook her head, and the playful grin returned. At the same time, she snapped her fingers, and her already minimal clothes completely disappeared, leaving her beautiful body fully on display. "I promise all your questions will be answered, Dreadwolf. But it will have to wait. With your transformation complete, the elven queen will be on her way to enslave you." 

Kane blinked in surprise at her sudden nakedness, a little caught off-guard. Her beauty didn't help his concentration either. Her body was lithe, and her breasts a modest B-cup, but that didn't take away from her beauty and charm at all. 

He shook his head trying to purge his mind of these thoughts, but as if to spite him, that pink rune once again appeared on his hand. Instantly, his thoughts were predictably flooded with lust and the desire to pin Mána down to dominate her supple body. Meanwhile, the quickly hardening member between his legs reminded him of his own nakedness.  

Once again, he was forced to rely on his discipline to calm down and focus back on what mattered. "If you're trying to distract me with this display, you've failed," he growled calmly, yet ferociously. "This queen should have had plenty of chances to enslave me, why choose now?" 

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Mána sighed impatiently, and a little disappointed that her body didn't cause him to pounce on her straight away. 'Although I have to admit that his restraint is very attractive in its own way…' she giggled inwardly. 

"Because I lied and told her I wouldn't be able to make your soul compatible if she enslaved it first," she quickly explained. "I needed her to change your body first, because they certainly wouldn't go through with it after you incapacitate the bitch." 

Kane frowned, not losing any of his caution. He remained suspicious of Mána's motives, but he couldn't deny that she was breaking down his defences as quickly as he was building them. "Incapacitate how? I refuse to believe I am stronger than this woman in any way, and if you could do it you wouldn't be going through all this trouble." 

Mána giggled with amusement, "Good instincts. She could wipe you out of existence like wiping a crumb from her face, and I am unable to interfere with the physical world." 

Kane's eyes twitched. He had expected that, of course, but hearing it so vividly still didn't feel very good. Immediately, his resolve and desire for power grew exponentially. He also wondered why she was unable to interfere, and if she was even speaking the truth, but he filed that question away as not an immediate priority. 

Suddenly, Mána blinked a few feet forward, and now stood in front of him, her hand on his naked chest, her lips mere inches from his, and her crimson-moon-like eyes stared alluringly into his amber ones. "Instead, we'll be using my sister's gift to stop the queen." 

Kane immediately realized what she was talking about. "The strange pink sex rune…"  he mumbled with a frown, having already wondered for a while where that rune would come into play.

Meanwhile, his hands found their way to Mána's soft hips, but he was unsure if he wanted to pull her closer or push her away as lust continued flooding his thoughts.

Mána giggled again, "That's a fitting name, I like it."

But despite her amusement and flirty behaviour, she quickly became a little more serious again. Her eyes still filled with impatience. "But it's actually called a lust shard. Among the shards of sin, lust, pride, and wrath are tools of domination that refuse to be enslaved by anyone. You'll use this to put the hurt on that elven bitch as soon as she tries." 

Kane quickly filed this new information away, while the crimson woman started rubbing her body against his, making his cock twitch and his resistance crumble. It wasn't hard to guess what the next step in Mána's plan was. 

"So, I guess we need to have sex for this to work?" he smirked as the lust in his body kept rising higher and higher, becoming exponentially harder to control. 

"That's right," Mána grinned mischievously and lustfully while leaning forward and softly kissing him, biting his lip. "You and your shard are still quite weak, which means you need a boost… and what better way to do that, than to have sex with your patron spirit?" 

'More terms I don't know,' Kane grunted inwardly, while his body trembled slightly from the barely controlled lust. Yet, he kept himself calm as he debated whether to go along with this Mána's plans. So far, she seemed to have been sincere and on the level. Even giving him a choice earlier appeared to have been genuine.  

Everything else he had gone through since that dream where he received the lust shard also seemed to suggest that what Mána had told him was true. 

While he was lost in thoughts, anxiety and impatience grew in Mána's eyes. "Dreadwolf…" she pleaded; her playfulness completely gone now. "She's already arrived. It's now or never…" 

Kane closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. Then he opened them again. 

"Fine!" Kane growled lustfully, and angrily, after finally coming to a decision. He still didn't know if he could trust Mána, but he realized he had to make a choice. So, he went with his gut instinct. 

Although that didn't take away the anger he felt. 

His hand shot forward, and he wrapped it around the crimson woman's throat for the third time. "But I'll be getting some payback while we're at it!" he snarled as he finally gave in to his lust.

Anxiety and impatience quickly disappeared from Mána's gaze when Kane relented. In its place was only eager excitement. Her teasing grin returned as well, "I wouldn't have it any other way…." she squeaked slightly through his hand.